Nurse’s Aide Had Treated Him : 5 Held in Paraplegic’s Kidnap, Robbery

Five suspects, including a Pacoima man paroled in January after serving 17 years for murder, have been arrested in connection with the abduction of a Canoga Park paraplegic and his girlfriend, who were forced to withdraw $26,600 from area banks Tuesday, police said.

Among those arrested Thursday was a former nurse’s aide who had treated the paraplegic in January and February, said Lt. William Gaida of the Los Angeles police. The aide, Annette Hayes, 19, apparently helped plan the robbery of the victims but did not participate in the kidnaping on Tuesday, he said.

“Our detectives knew that this had to be an inside job,” said Gaida. “These folks were not just driving down the street looking for a house to rob. Based on what happened, they knew quite a bit.”

Three Broke In

Gaida said Hayes’ uncle, Harold Hayes, 36, of Pacoima, who was convicted of shooting and killing a friend after robbing him in 1968, was the leader of the three bandits who broke into the couple’s condominium near Topanga Canyon and Roscoe boulevards at 6:25 a.m. Tuesday. The names of the victims were withheld by police.

One of the captors forced the woman victim to drive to three First Interstate Bank branches to collect a total of $600 from the automatic teller machines, police said.

They said the suspects then forced the disabled man to call up the bank and arrange a large cash withdrawal. After they removed video, stereo and camera equipment from the home, a 17-year-old boy drove off with the loot in the suspects’ vehicle, police said.

The disabled man then drove to the First Interstate Bank at Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue in his specially equipped van, accompanied by another suspect, a 15-year-old girl, while the woman victim, accompanied by Hayes, followed in her car, Gaida said.

Couple Unharmed

The juvenile accompanied the disabled man in his motorized wheelchair into the bank as he made the withdrawal, Gaida said. After turning over the money to Hayes and his accomplice, the couple were released unharmed in the parking lot of the bank, and the robbers fled in the woman victim’s car, he said.

After becoming suspicious that Annette Hayes, the nurses’ aide who treated the disabled man from mid-January to mid-February, was involved in the robbery, detectives detained her Thursday at her Pacoima home and found several items taken from the victims, Gaida said. A 17-year-old boy who allegedly was receiving stolen property from Hayes at the time was arrested, along with the 17-year-old suspect who had participated in the robbery, Gaida said.

Police then set up surveillance at the Pacoima residence where Harold Hayes and the 15-year-old girl suspect, a runaway from Pacoima, were staying, Gaida said. Police reportedly attempted to arrest the pair when they drove away from the house and stopped for a red light at Foothill Boulevard and Paxton Street.

Police Cars Rammed

When officers boxed in the car with their vehicles, Hayes attempted to escape by ramming his car into the police cars in front and behind him, Gaida said. One officer fired a shot at Hayes’ car but missed. Hayes then stopped the car and, after he struggled briefly with officers, was taken into custody along with the girl, Gaida said.

Most of the $10,000 worth of property taken in the robbery was recovered from the suspects, along with $8,700 in cash, Gaida said. The car of the woman victim was not immediately recovered, he said.

Since being released from prison in January, Hayes had been seeking employment and “for all intents and purposes had been doing well,” said Marshall Lundsberg, deputy regional parole administrator for the state parole division.

Besides his murder conviction in 1968, Hayes had also been convicted of possessing narcotics while in prison, Lundsberg said. “He had difficulty adjusting to prison life, or otherwise he might have been released much sooner,” he said.

Annette Hayes was being held at Van Nuys Jail and Harold Hayes was in County Jail. Each was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. The three teen-agers were being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.