Actually, if it was me, I would go to court to force her to give me the cells, if that failed, kidnapping would be the charge.
I would rather do jail time for kidnapping than die. Think about it, if this guy has little time left what threat is there to a kidnapping charge.
Would there be a possibility of a jury convicting him?
All this presupposes that the story is even close to accurate. I suspect the story may be highly inaccurate.