Four Sacramento men accused in Southern California violent kidnapping of businessman for ransom
Four Sacramento men are accused of traveling to Southern California to kidnap a Los Angeles County businessman at gunpoint in an attack last year that left the victim beaten and abandoned as his home burglarized.
A federal grand jury indicted the four men, charging them each with two counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. Three of the accused men have been arrested, but authorities have not found 43-year-old Jerome Franklin Jr., who remains at large, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles announced Wednesday in a news release.
The three accused men who were arrested last week, ages 57, 29 and 39, are expected to be arraigned in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, federal prosecutors said.
The FBI booked the arrested men Thursday at the Sacramento County Main Jail, where they remained in custody ineligible for bail on a federal hold, jail records show.
“These defendants are charged with putting the victim through a terrifying ordeal, one that will leave lasting emotional and psychological scars,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in the news release. “We will not tolerate such brazen acts of violence and will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners to ensure stiff penalties for perpetrators of such violent acts.”
Kidnapping in Lancaster
The prosecutors allege that on Oct. 27, 2023, the defendants traveled from Sacramento to Lancaster to kidnap the Antelope Valley businessman at gunpoint from his workplace. The defendants beat the businessman, zip-tied his hands and duct-taped his turban over his face, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The defendants allegedly demanded $100,000 or more from the victim, as well as gold and jewelry. Prosecutors said the four Sacramento men threatened to kill the businessman if he did not comply with their demands, telling him: “This is your last day.”
Prosecutors allege that Franklin and “another kidnapper,” who has not been identified, held the businessman captive as the three other Sacramento men went to the victim’s home to burglarize it, according to the grand jury indictment filed in federal court on Aug. 27 and unsealed on Tuesday.
The victim’s wife noticed burglars on their home security system, so she called her husband’s phone. Prosecutors said the kidnappers had her husband’s phone, and they eventually abandoned the businessman in a desolate area of California.
The victim was held captive in a vehicle as Franklin and the unknown accomplice drove him around on an interstate highway and elsewhere while his home was burglarized, according to the indictment. One of the arrested defendants rented one of the two vehicles used in the kidnapping, including the vehicle used to commit the home burglary, prosecutors said.
One of the defendants allegedly rented a Toyota Rav4 in Sacramento to use in the kidnapping in Los Angeles County, stealing a license plate from another vehicle in Palmdale to conceal their identities. A temporary license plate was also allegedly stolen to disguise the other vehicle used in the kidnapping.
The FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated the reported kidnapping.
“The community can rest assured that the perpetrators of this violent and heinous kidnapping are now in custody and will face serious consequences for their actions,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles field office, said in the news release.
If convicted of both charges, prosecutors said the defendants could each face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
This story was originally published September 4, 2024 at 1:56 PM.
