Acquitted:
An Ohio couple stole millions of Dollars from several victims throughout the country. Two investors from California and two investors from Arizona tracked down the couple living an Exotic lifestyle in Miami. The Investors hired two armed bodyguards to assist in their collection of their funds and took the Nanny and two infants from their house and drove them to the Pizzeria the Mother was running.
The Ohio woman was taken from the Pizzeria by force and the Nanny, two children and their mother were held for 9 hours at 3 different holding locations while the investors sent ransom demands to the husband/father with photos of the family and wiring instructions to be met by 8pm or else.
Six Defendants were charged with conspiracy to Kidnap and 4 counts of kidnapping with guns. One Defendant pled guilty six days before trial and agreed to a 17-year sentence to testify against the defendants. The Nanny testified our client snatched the sleeping baby from the bedroom of the home, forced them from the home, was locked in the car with child safety locks activated and held against her will. The cooperating co-defendant testified that our client provided a disguise for her to enter the pizzeria, was sent banking information to his phone to transfer moneys from the kidnappee as he went through her phone and found bank accounts. The house and pizzeria abductions were captured on video tape and the Government showed a video and called an expert witness from Volkswagen of America who testified that the video shows the child locks being activated by a co-conspirator as the mother was being forcefully placed in our client’s car.
Our defense was our client was hired to protect, was unaware it was a kidnapping and the Government’s witnesses were lying for a reduced sentence and special visa’s for victims. After a three-week trial our client and one other defendant were acquitted of all charges while the other three Defendants were convicted of the kidnappings.