Birmingham lawyer in good shape after abduction drama

An attorney who was rescued by police nearly nine hours after she was carjacked at gunpoint outside her downtown apartment was in surprisingly good spirits following the ordeal, her law partner said Thursday.

Marcus A. Jones III spoke with Sandra Eubank Gregory, 34, after officers stormed a suburban motel, freeing her and arresting a parolee believed responsible for her abduction.

“For the ordeal that happened she is upspirited,” said Jones.

The suspect pleaded guilty to three robberies in Mobile eight years ago, records show, and also had convictions from Mississippi.

Jones said he didn’t ask about details of what happened during the daylong drama on Wednesday, and Gregory _ known to friends as “Sandi” _ didn’t volunteer any.

“I just told her everybody was praying for her,” said Jones.

Authorities said it appeared Gregory had been hit during the abduction, but she was not seriously injured. She was checked at a hospital and released.

Investigators and prosecutors are weighing charges against the man suspected of confronting Gregory with a gun in a parking lot beside her downtown loft building and forcing her to drive off with him in her boyfriend’s Lexus sport-utility vehicle. Gregory was bound and on the floor of the motel room when she was located.

“The police are still looking at it, talking to people and sorting through things,” said Doug Davis, chief deputy district attorney in Jefferson County.

Police who rescued the woman said they also found a gun and cash, which apparently was taken earlier in withdrawals from Gregory’s accounts at three area bank branches.

The suspect, identified as Dedrick Griham, 35, pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree robbery in Mobile County in May 1998 after holding up three stores with a gun, according to state records. Released from prison last August after serving about eight years of a 20-year prison term, he moved to a halfway house in Birmingham.

Griham also has previous convictions in two Mississippi counties, Harrison and Jackson, on charges including robbery and grand larcency, according to Nic Lott, a prison spokesman there. He was transferred to Alabama’s prison system from a Mississippi lockup and should have been sent back following his release, Lott said.

“He was supposed to come back to Mississippi to serve three years probation. We have a warrant out for him,” said Lott.

Griham reported to his parole officer as recently as last week and provided proof of employment, said Cynthia Dillard, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

“He was complying with the conditions of his parole,” she said.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Griham had four disciplinary actions while in prison. “That’s low for the amount of time he was in,” said Corbett.

Gregory practices law primarily in family court, but investigators said there was no indication that her abduction had anything to do with her work.