Man, mother arrested after plotting murder, DA says

NEWS 9

A custody battle turned kidnapping almost became bloody, said Grady County District Attorney Bret Burns.

Tricia Hartline was awarded custody of the three children she had with Robert Lee Cook, but that didn't stop Cook from allegedly kidnapping the children and moving them to Dallas.

Hiding out for 11 months, according to authorities, Cook wrote on a Web page that he had taken his children in defiance of a court order. Cook was staking out Hartline's trailer with a plot for murder when he was caught by a Ninnekah police officer. 

The police officer pulled over a suspicious van with a stolen license plate leaving Tricia's mobile home park. When the police officer looked inside he found Robert with his mother Minnie Irene Cook with two bottles of lighter fluid, a blonde wig, trash bags, latex gloves and fire arms.

The children, ranging in age from two to four, are all back with Tricia now as Cook and his mother sit in jail awaiting arraignment.