Maria Zone, a freelance reporter/producer for Court TV, was grabbed and held hostage by convicted killer Kenneth Kimes when she sought to interview him at the Clinton Correctional Facility, often referred to as Dannemora Prison, in upstate New York Tuesday.

During a 4 1/2-hour standoff, Kimes reportedly threatened to stab Zone with a pen that he held against her throat unless authorities agreed not to extradite his 66-year-old mother, Sante, to California, where she is due to stand trial in another murder case in which she and her son were both implicated.

A prison official later said that while Kimes was talking to hostage negotiators, they distracted him long enough for other prison guards to grab him and separate him from Zone, who was not injured.

Source: Studio Briefing