ALFRED, Maine — Three out-of-state men who allegedly threatened to burn hostages with a blowtorch and held a gun to a victim’s head in a bizarre kidnapping attempt over drugs in January have been indicted on multiple felony counts of robbery, kidnapping, terrorizing and more.
Angel Alicia, 25, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Samuel Hilton and Ahyheuris Moto-Speing, both 23 and of Lawrence, Massachusetts, were all formally charged by a York County grand jury on Wednesday.
If convicted, the men face decades in prison.
Following their arrest Jan. 14, York County Sheriff Bill King compared the bizarre incident to a scene from the movie “Pulp Fiction.”
According to King, sheriff ’s deputies were called to Bridge Street in Newfield around 2 p.m. Jan. 14 by a caller who reported observing a man pointing a gun at the head of another, whose hands were bound with duct tape. The gun holder was yelling at the bound man, then got back in his car and drove away, leaving the victim behind, King said.
Deputies put out a notice to neighboring jurisdictions, and Sanford police stopped the suspects’ car on Route 202 near the Deer Ridge Park complex and detained the three men inside, said Sanford Police Chief Tom Connolly in an interview at the time. The three suspects were “relatively compliant,” Connolly said.
The scenario began earlier in the day in Waterboro, when the trio drove to a home on Northeast Road.
“The out-of-state men were under the apparent misconception that there was a large amount of marijuana at the Waterboro residence, and they wanted it,” King said following the incident.
“The victims claimed they did not have a large amount of marijuana, which angered the suspects,” the sheriff continued in a statement. “The aggressors ordered the three victims to lie on the floor while they secured their arms with duct tape and searched the house. When they thought one of the victims resisted, they struck him on the head with the gun and also dragged one of the victims down some stairs. The men prodded the victims and produced a blowtorch, threatening to burn them if they did not give up their stash of marijuana.”
“They came in like a couple of ‘Pulp Fiction’ characters,” King said in a January interview. ”One of the victims concocted a story that the marijuana was in the possession of an ‘associate,’ and pointed to a random vehicle that was passing by the house. The quick-thinking victim told the men the stash of marijuana was in the vehicle that was traveling down the road.”
King said the trio took one of the three male victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 30s, with them as they tried to catch up to the random vehicle, ending up in Newfield. King said the bound man jumped out of the car when it slowed down and began yelling for help.
Hilton has been indicted on three counts of kidnapping, three counts of robbery with a firearm — all Class A felonies — a Class B felony conspiracy charge, and Class C charges of terrorizing and criminal threatening.
Moto-Speing and Alicia each face three Class A kidnapping counts, three Class A robbery counts, a Class B conspiracy charge, three Class C terrorizing charges and three Class C criminal threatening charges.
Class A crimes carry a maximum prison term of 30 years, Class B, 10 years, and Class C, five years.
Alicia and Hilton are being held at York County Jail on $150,000 bail; Moto-Speing is held on $250,000 bail.