'Very violent man' charged in drug-related kidnapping

'Very violent man' charged in drug-related kidnapping

(Iron County Sheriff's Office)


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CEDAR CITY — A Cedar City man who has already been the focus of police investigations over the past year, and who has served prison time for manslaughter in Arizona, is now charged with beating and kidnapping a woman.

James Dean Hanson, 52, and his wife Deanna Hanson, 48, were charged Monday in 5th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, in addition to assault and theft, class B misdemeanors. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 27.

On Aug. 29, Hanson kidnapped a woman, "punched her, kicked her, duct taped her to a chair and then released her the next morning," according to charging documents.

The woman said she was "very scared for her life" and did not initially cooperate with police, the charges state. It wasn't until Sept. 4 that she called investigators back and said she was ready to talk.

She said James Hanson, whom she described as a "very mean person," wired money to her to buy heroin for him, the charges state. The woman said she didn't feel comfortable buying drugs for him, but "spent the money as she needed to." She later brought a pair of speakers to Hanson hoping it would satisfy him in exchange for the money.

But when she met with the Hansons, Deanna "accused her of disrespecting Jimmy," punched her in the face, duct taped her to a chair with her hands behind her back, and then put her and the chair in a bathtub, according to the charges.

The Hansons said they left the woman in the bathroom for a couple of days until she got "dope sick," the charges state. The woman, however, was able to free herself, she claimed, but was attacked again while trying to escape the house.

James Hanson punched, kicked and "stomped her in the back of the head with his heel," according to court documents. The woman was again taped to the chair, and police say Hanson threatened to "kill her or sell her to a Mexican sex trafficker."

The next morning, police say James Hanson let the woman go but kept several of her possessions.

The case is the latest in a series of events involving Hanson.

On July 6 he was charged in Cedar City Justice Court with two counts of misdemeanor drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

On April 12 Hanson was charged in Iron County Justice Court with threatening violence, lewdness, disorderly conduct and interfering with an arrest for allegedly going to the lobby of Cedar City Hospital a few days earlier and yelling that "he was crazy and going to start killing people if he didn't see the doctor," according to charging documents.

A year ago, Hanson was charged in 5th District Court with felony burglary, possession of a weapon by a restricted person, theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. In that incident, Hanson and another person were allegedly squatting in an unoccupied house for about a month. The Iron County sheriff's SWAT team had to be called to get Hanson out of the house.

In the booking statement filed after Hanson was arrested, police noted that he is "reported to be a very violent man" and that during recent interactions with police he "has become very volatile in his behavior," including destroying property at the hospital after he was arrested for that incident, slipping out of his handcuffs and "banging his head on the wall at the correctional facility."

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