Victim offered to help kidnapper ‘finesse’ trial for bribe, feds say. He’s off to prison
A man was left beaten and bloody after a violent kidnapping, then he messaged one of his kidnappers on Instagram with an offer, federal prosecutors say.
First, he taunted the kidnapper awaiting trial, telling him to plead guilty “like a man” and accept a 10-year sentence in Instagram direct messages, court documents filed in federal court in Maryland show.
Minutes later, the man wrote “[C]all me If you want to finesse trial” and sent his phone number before deleting the messages, according to the court filings with screenshots of the messages.
The man also offered to either lie at the trial or refuse to show up in exchange for a $5,000 bribe, prosecutors said.
“Your choice my boy,” the man wrote to his kidnapper before bragging to his friend about the offer, saying “I’m auctioning off his freedom,” according to prosecutors. He explained he’d testify his kidnapper “wasn’t the guy” if he was paid, prosecutors said.
The 28-year-old man who used to live in Fairfax, Virginia, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison on Feb. 24 after the government learned of the messages, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced in a news release.
The kidnapper’s legal defense turned over the Instagram screenshots to prosecutors ahead of the trial, according to officials.
Stuart Berman, the man’s attorney, described the case in a statement to McClatchy News on Feb. 27 as “one of the most unusual cases” he’s seen in nearly “40 years of prosecuting and defending federal criminal cases.”
Though his client helped “secure guilty pleas from four of the five kidnappers,” his Instagram messages to the fifth kidnapper resulted in “his own prosecution,” Berman said.
Initially, prosecutors sought a lengthier sentence of four years and six months in prison, a sentencing memo shows. Berman said his client was treated “as an ‘accessory after the fact’ to his own kidnapping” and “faced a sentence nearly as long” as his kidnappers did.
Berman added U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel ultimately recognized the case’s “extraordinary” nature and he and his client are grateful for the lesser and “reasonable” sentence.
The fifth kidnapper, a 28-year-old from Washington, D.C., was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison on Jan. 20 after pleading guilty to his role in the Feb. 3, 2021, kidnapping, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News contacted his attorneys for comment on Feb. 27 and didn’t immediately receive a response.
How the kidnapping unfolded
Prosecutors in court documents describe the man’s kidnapping as a drug deal gone wrong.
He met the kidnapper he’d later try soliciting a bribe from, and another kidnapper, while gambling at a casino in Maryland where he had a hotel room, prosecutors said.
The kidnappers are accused of offering to sell the man cocaine, then luring him to a building in Washington, D.C., according to prosecutors.
After he was given the cocaine, the kidnappers drove him to a parking lot where they beat and robbed him, prosecutors said. Then, they took him inside the closet of a nearby building’s basement and held him at gunpoint, according to prosecutors.
As he was held captive, the kidnappers are accused of stealing items from his hotel room after seizing his room key. They released him when they were done, and officers later found the man bleeding from his forehead, prosecutors said.
After a federal investigation was launched into the man’s kidnapping, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo that “the government employed the criminal justice system to keep the Defendant safe. The Defendant, however, tried to exploit the criminal justice system for his financial benefit.”
In documents submitted by Berman, he explained how the stress of the aftermath of his kidnapping caused his client to drink heavily. He wrote that his client messaged his kidnapper on Instagram during a “drunken episode” — ultimately transforming him from a “cooperating witness into defendant.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Victim offered to help kidnapper ‘finesse’ trial for bribe, feds say. He’s off to prison."
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