On Monday, Sixth District Circuit Court Judge Debra Blackwell sentenced an Adams County man to serve 20 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections and to pay court costs after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping.

Jeffery Hartley entered a guilty plea to one count of kidnapping stemming from a Dec. 12, 2019, incident, where he allegedly held his wheelchair-bound grandmother and his then-girlfriend hostage at their home in the 200 block of Morgantown Road, authorities said at the time of the incident.

When Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, they reportedly found a woman with injuries on her face and upper torso after she had seemingly been struck with a board. The other victim told deputies the offender fled the house through a rear window and was possibly armed.

The deputies cordoned off the area and later encountered Hartley, who was 23 at the time, holding a shotgun and threatening to kill himself, authorities stated.

The deputies were successful in talking Hartley into surrendering without using force.

During his sentencing this week, Blackwell also ordered that Hartley be evaluated for chemical dependency at MDOC and receive treatment if it is needed, Adams County District Attorney Shameca Collins stated in a news release.

Collins added she wanted to thank the sheriff’s office deputies for their skillful work.

“Because of the cool heads of the negotiators, a bad situation was prevented from becoming markedly worse,” she said.