CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- Prosecutors say the man accused of killing his parents in Charlotte and kidnapping his 11-year-old niece in 2017 offered to trade her up to the police when he fled to Washington D.C., shortly after the murders, according to new details released Thursday.
Prosecutors at the Mecklenburg County courthouse also sought an order in court limiting Curtis Atkinson Jr.’s communications from inside the jail after they revealed that they intercepted a letter that they say Atkinson sent outside of the jail making threats to attorneys and a witness in the case.
The judge granted an extension of the current order to limit Atkinson’s communication while he’s in jail awaiting trial, set Thursday for July 31. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
Prosecutors say they intercepted a letter Atkinson sent outside of the jail. In it, they say he made threats to members of his defense team, members of the prosecution and a juvenile witness in the case.
Court records say in April 2017, Atkinson killed his parents at their Charlotte home and kidnapped his 11-year-old niece. An Amber Alert was issued for the child.
Prosecutors say Atkinson took his niece to Washington, D.C., fleeing after the alleged murders. Thursday in court, prosecutors released new information saying the missing girl’s uncle offered her up to police in D.C. in 2017 exchange for a ransom.
“Not to mention his niece who’s the subject of kidnapping who he took from Charlotte after leaving her in the house with her dead grandparents for three days before he and his co-defendant fled with the, I believe then-10-year-old niece to Washington D.C., where they offered to trade her for (inaudible) to the police,” a prosecutor said Thursday.
In relation to the accusations of threats made in a letter, Atkinson’s attorney said his client denies making threats to anyone.