Gary Simpson, the man accused of kidnapping Carlie Trent in May, appeared in court for a preliminary hearing.
The hearing was held in East Tennessee Wednesday.
A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent took the stand and read back a statement Simpson gave after his arrest.
"I had decided about three or four days before I took Carlie that I was going to do it. My plan was to take her to a friend of mine's house next to Roanoke, Virginia. I met him in the Marine Corps a long time ago. I was going to ask his wife to home school Carlie and I was going to find a job."
Simpson is 9-year-old Carlie's uncle by marriage. He claims the little girl was being treated unfairly by her father.
