Suspect Pleads Guilty in Exxon Kidnaping Case : Trial: Man admits he abducted company executive Reso in an attempt to extort $18 million, but says he never meant to kill him.

A former Exxon security official pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges in the kidnaping death of company executive Sidney J. Reso, saying he never meant to kill him and that Reso died in his arms.

Arthur D. Seale said he accidentally shot Reso after abducting him in an attempt to extort $18 million from Exxon Corp. He said Reso, the president of Exxon International, died four days after the April 29 kidnaping. Seale admitted that he tried to extort the money even after Reso’s death.

U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown questioned Seale on all seven counts of the federal indictment against him, confirming that Seale committed the acts, understood that they were wrong and intended to commit them.

Brown then accepted Seale’s guilty plea to attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, mail fraud and interstate travel to promote extortion.

Seale faces a maximum penalty of 95 years in prison when he is sentenced on the federal charges. He also faces state charges of kidnaping and felony murder in the 57-year-old executive’s death.

Seale, 45, whose trial had been scheduled to begin Thursday, did not give a reason for pleading guilty, and the prosecutor said no deal was made.

Seale and his wife, Irene J. Seale, both of Lebanon Township, were arrested June 19 and charged with abducting Reso from his Morris Township home. Authorities said Reso was shot in the arm during a struggle as he was forced into a van, and was then locked inside a box in a self-storage locker.

Reso died on May 3. Mrs. Seale directed investigators on June 27 to a secluded area of a forest where Reso’s body was found in a shallow grave. Mrs. Seale pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Seale spoke freely of the crime. He described how he and his wife sat in a van and watched Reso’s garage door open, then drove in front of the driveway as Reso stopped to pick up his newspaper.

“I yelled and grabbed him by the collar,” Seale told the judge. “I pulled him into the van, and when he got into the van he went to turn and the gun went off, and he received a wound to his left arm.”

Seale, a former police officer and security officer at Exxon International, said he and his wife worked together on ransom notes and phone calls in which they called themselves “Warriors of the Rainbow,” and threatened to kidnap another Exxon executive.

“We said that but it wasn’t true. We were just trying to convince them this was a terrorist group,” Seale said.