Alfredo Capote is set for sentencing in July after prosecutors said he abducted Jokisha Brown across several Georgia cities.
ATLANTA, GA — A federal jury convicted Atlanta man Alfredo Capote of kidnapping this month, nearly 10 years after prosecutors said he abducted aspiring actress and model Jokisha Brown from her Duluth home and drove her across Georgia.
The verdict came after a four-day trial and followed years of legal delays, including the dismissal of earlier kidnapping and rape charges in Gwinnett County. Brown, who later was shot and killed in Atlanta, was not alive to testify. Federal prosecutors said the case moved forward after the FBI opened an investigation in 2022.
Capote, 39, was convicted April 16 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Prosecutors said the crime began April 7, 2016, when Capote and an unknown masked man went to Brown’s home in Duluth. Capote was dating Brown at the time. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said Capote staged a robbery so Brown and her teenage son would believe the masked man was looking for Capote’s money. “While on pretrial release facing serious federal charges, Capote kidnapped and sexually assaulted his then-girlfriend repeatedly before she escaped and ran to safety,” Hertzberg said.
According to evidence presented in court, the masked man tied up Brown in her bedroom, then he and Capote tied up Brown’s 17-year-old son, identified by local reports as Jack Collier, in his bedroom. Prosecutors said Capote, who also was armed, returned to Brown’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her. Capote then took Brown from Duluth to a friend’s house in Austell, where he asked for help getting a new phone and a place to stay. Prosecutors said the friend did not know a kidnapping was underway and booked a hotel room for Capote, where Capote sexually assaulted Brown again.
The next day, prosecutors said, Capote drove Brown to Perry, about 100 miles south of Atlanta, and took her to another friend’s house. Brown escaped in Perry by jumping from a car and running to a nearby gas station. At the time, Capote was on bond in a separate federal case involving more than a dozen counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said he cut off a court-ordered ankle monitor during the kidnapping and stayed a fugitive for more than a year before he was arrested in Louisiana on April 18, 2017.
The case was complicated by Brown’s death. She was shot and killed July 1, 2016, outside a salon in northeast Atlanta, one day before her 36th birthday. Atlanta police have said that homicide case remains open. Capote has not been charged in Brown’s killing. Defense attorney Bruce Harvey said he plans to appeal the federal conviction, including over the use of Brown’s statements at trial. Harvey said Brown’s absence kept the defense from cross-examining her about those statements. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Renaud said the judge rejected defense efforts to keep Brown’s words out of the case.
The federal case followed a failed local prosecution in Gwinnett County. Harvey said he fought for three years to show county prosecutors missed a key speedy-trial deadline, which led to the dismissal of kidnapping and rape charges against Capote in county court. Hertzberg said the FBI and federal prosecutors were able to step in after learning of problems in the local case. FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Bilson said Gwinnett County police had completed a thorough investigation before the federal case moved ahead.
Brown’s family and friends watched the federal trial after years of waiting. Sabre, a close friend of Brown, said the case had stayed with loved ones since 2016. “It’s just been something that’s been hanging over our heads and our hearts since it occurred,” Sabre said. Federal prosecutors said jurors were told Brown was deceased, but were not told she had been murdered. Marlo Graham, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, called the kidnapping a deliberate crime against someone who trusted Capote and said investigators continued working until the case reached a verdict.
Capote is scheduled to be sentenced July 22, 2026, at 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash. Brown’s homicide remains open, and the federal conviction closes only the kidnapping case.
Author note: Last updated Monday, April 27, 2026.