Kannapolis man held in rape, kidnapping

KANNAPOLIS — Police arrested a man Tuesday who they say raped a woman and then held her and her 10-year-old son captive in their own home overnight.

Martin Alvin Morgan, 31, of 500 Raven Drive, is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and assault on a child under 12, all felonies. He is also charged with assault on a female, a misdemeanor.

Morgan is in Cabarrus County Jail under $100,000 bond. He also faces previous charges of assault on a female, misdemeanor larceny, injury to personal property and injury to real property.

Police say Morgan went to the home of a female acquaintance in the Shady Brook community around 11 p.m. Monday night. The woman’s son let Morgan in, said Capt. Woody Chavis of the Kannapolis Police Department.

“He refused to leave,” Chavis said. “He started physically assaulting her and her son.”

Morgan then raped the woman, Chavis said. Threatening the woman and her son with a box cutter, he said, Morgan held them in the house overnight.

Around noon Tuesday, Morgan sent the woman to the store.

“He decided he wanted some cigarettes,” Chavis said. “And he was going to use the child as an insurance policy to ensure her return.”

At a convenience store near the Kannapolis Police Department, the woman called her aunt. The aunt called police, then went to the home herself before the police arrived.

Chavis said Morgan probably thought the aunt was the police, because he ran from the home and to the mobile home where he lives with his sister and her husband.

Police set up a perimeter around the mobile home in case Morgan tried to flee, then knocked on the door. Morgan’s sister told police he was in the house. They found him hiding in a bedroom closet.

“We brought it to a quick resolution,” Chavis said. “He was taken into custody without incident.”

Chavis said Kannapolis Police had warrants for Morgan on the previous charges, and were looking for him before the assault and kidnapping occurred Monday.

He said the woman was “battered and bruised,” but neither she nor her son required hospitalization.

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com .