A Harford County judge sentenced a 22-year-old Edgewood man to 55 years in prison Tuesday for kidnapping and carjacking. Joshua Prince Freeman was convicted by a jury in the October 2009 kidnapping of Kara Smithson, 21, of Pylesville.
Freeman and three accomplices, including a female juvenile who was known to the victim, lured Smithson to a location in the southern end of the county, according to Joseph I. Cassilly, Harford County State's Attorney. When Smithson met the group, she was carjacked, kidnapped and repeatedly struck and assaulted, while being driven around the Joppa area. The kidnappers called her parents and demanded a ransom. Smithson fought back until the assailants threw her out of the moving car. In an effort to destroy evidence, one accomplice drove the car to a school parking lot and set it on fire.
