Texas soldier found unhurt charged with being AWOL

The Army has charged a soldier who disappeared for more than a week and was reported as a possible kidnap victim with being AWOL after he was found unharmed in a Texas border town.

Pfc. James Andrew Gonzalez, 24, a soldier based at Fort Hood in Texas, was taken into custody during a traffic stop in Laredo on Wednesday, more than a week after he was reported missing. The Army has said Gonzalez was not hurt and there are no indications that he was abducted.

He has since been charged with being AWOL. He was brought from Laredo on Thursday and booked into the Bell County Jail near Fort Hood early Friday. Base spokesman Bruce Zielsdorf said Gonzalez will be held at the county jail while awaiting trial because Fort Hood does not have a brig.

The jail said Gonzalez did not yet have a lawyer Friday.

Gonzalez's mother, Rose Gonzalez, said she spoke with her son by phone Thursday night. "He sounded tired but said he was doing OK," she said.

Asked if her son had offered any explanation for his disappearance, she said, "I don't think he was given a chance to. I only spoke to him for about two minutes."

Earlier this week, J.C. Gonzalez had said the FBI told the family that the Army received a ransom call on July 13 saying James Gonzalez had been abducted and that the caller demanded $100,000 and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the border.

James Gonzalez was charged earlier this year with misdemeanor counts of assault and interfering with an emergency call for what his brother, J.C. Gonzalez, said was a dispute with his girlfriend. He said his brother was scheduled to go on trial for those charges in September.