If you were prosecuting 56-year-old Mahendra Patel for attempting to kidnap a toddler from a metro Atlanta Walmart, you would likely avoid using store surveillance video, released last week by the defendant’s attorney.
The Walmart cameras capture much of Patel’s activity in the store on March 18, the day of the alleged failed kidnapping. His behavior seemingly contradicts what you’d expect from an abductor on the run.
“He’s not fleeing as the police have said,” said Ashleigh Merchant, Patel’s attorney. “He’s using his debit card. He’s talking to an employee here, paying for it with his own name.”
His interaction with the toddler’s mother, Caroline Miller, starts when Patel asks her where he could find a bottle of Tylenol. There’s no disagreement about that.
Miller, driving a motorized cart, with her baby in her arms and her 2-year-old son by her feet, directs Patel a few aisles over. He leans in and that’s when Miller said Patel tried to grab her son.
“We were tug of warring,” Miller said.
Merchant said the video is clear that there was no attempt to wrestle away the boy.
“You can’t see this tug-of-war or grabbing back and forth,” the attorney said. “You can see him lean in, and it’s very likely he was doing what he said — which is to keep the child from falling.”
Patel is seen with his arms outstretched but doesn’t appear to be attempting to pull the boy away.
“If you’re in Walmart and you see someone in need, you’re just going to have to let them fall, apparently,” Merchant continued. “We can no longer help handicapped people is what this is saying.”
The arrest warrant secured by Acworth police accuses Patel of grabbing and pulling the woman’s child, prompting the mom to “wrestle” her son back.
But if that’s the case, why is Miller apparently smiling after their encounter? And why didn’t Patel flee the store in a hurry, as police allege but the video contradicts? On his way to the register, he sees Miller a second time and appears to show her the Tylenol. She responds with a thumbs up.
“He’s not fleeing, not in a hurry, not running away, not trying to hide what just happened,” Merchant said. “You don’t see anything.”
Before Patel leaves the store, Miller is seen backing the motorized cart into shelves near the pharmacy, where it appears she runs over her child’s foot.
Another shopper comes to her aid.
Miller did not respond to requests from local media for comment on the newly released footage. She said last month that she is not handicapped, but her children wanted to ride in the motorized wheelchair.
The boy’s father, Jeremiah Walker, told Fox 5 his fiancée was “shaking for an hour after (the alleged attempted kidnapping), physically you could see she was shaking.”
Patel was arrested three days after the incident. Acworth police said they also used store surveillance footage to help track him down.
They said in a statement they are “aware of the partial video that has been released to the public” but could not elaborate further so as not to compromise the integrity of the case.
Patel, meanwhile, has spent more than a month in jail. The real estate investor and father of two is charged with attempted kidnapping, simple battery and simple assault and is being held without bond.
He received a quick indictment, a tactic, Merchant alleges, employed to avoid having an adversarial voice at the probable cause hearing.
It’s unclear if the grand jury that indicted Patel was shown any of the store’s surveillance video.
“We’re at the mercy of the DA’s office because they’re the only people who can dismiss the charges,” Merchant said. “Otherwise, you have to get in front of a jury.”
In a motion filed earlier this month, the Cobb County District Attorney’s office attempted to keep Merchant from speaking about the case, arguing it had “become a subject of scrutiny in the local and statewide media” and led to online harassment of the child’s mother.
Merchant accused the detective who obtained the warrant of taking “significant liberties with the facts.”
“He said that things happened that didn’t happen and got a kidnapping warrant,” Merchant said Wednesday. “Dude, this is not kidnapping.”
She said her client will likely remain in jail for at least a few more weeks before until his bond hearing on May 6.
