Federal prosecutors in Miami, Florida have secured an indictment against six people, including two Bay Area residents, on charges of kidnapping two children and two adults and attempting to collect $100,000 ransom for them, court records show.
The ordeal ended with all four kidnapping victims being found unharmed, but authorities say that during the seven-hour ordeal their abductors threatened to kill them and sent photos of them to loved ones in order to coax out the ransom. In the end, the victims were realized after the suspects realized authorities had been alerted, according to court records.
Mohammead Ahmed Khan, Christopher Alan Baird, Joe Nathan Hightower, Luu Nguyen Dieu Hong, Joseph Christopher Ricard, and Trang Nguyen now face additional charges of conspiracy and kidnapping, while Hong, Ricard, Baird, and Nguyen are charged with stalking and possessing guns in furtherance of a violent crime, court records show.
In court papers, authorities describe Ricard and Nguyen as ringleaders of the plot and say that they traveled to Miami from San Jose, where they live, the day before the kidnapping. Baird and Hong allegedly flew in from Arizona, according to the indictment.
The suspected motive involved a dispute over a $100,000 debt, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege that the group planned the crime meticulously. Ricard allegedly hired armed guards — Khan and Hightower — while Nguyen and Hong rented vehicles for the abductions. They secured rooms at the Aloft Hotel in Miami, figured out the victims’ home and workplace, and made travel arrangements for the four co-conspirators who lived in California and Arizona.
Then they allegedly carried out the crime so haphazardly their arrests were practically a foregone conclusion.
The charging records allege that on Sept. 22, all six defendants entered the victims’ home on SW 87th Place in Miami and abducted two children and their nanny. Then they went to a Domino’s Pizza parlor in Miami where the kids’ mother — listed as “Victim Four” in court papers — worked. Ricard allegedly entered the business, leapt over a counter in full view of witnesses and security cameras, and took the woman away by force.
“Over the course of the encounter, Victim Four stated (Ricard) used tape to cover her mouth and tie her hands, hit her in the chest, asked her if she was ready to die, and made repeated reference to her seeing her children for the ‘last time,'” prosecutors wrote in a motion to keep Ricard detained. “He also took Victim Four’s phone and used it to take ransom photos of the victims,” which were reportedly sent to the woman’s husband.
At some point during the day, Nguyen realized that there was a “heavy police presence” at the victims’ home and alerted the others, who in turn decided to release all four victims, authorities say.
Nguyen and Ricard were arrested last month in the Bay Area, and subsequently extradited to Florida to face charges. All six defendants remain in federal custody and face a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.
