7 Charged in San Marino Kidnapping

Seven people were charged Tuesday with kidnapping a 3-year-old boy and demanding $1.5 million for his return in a scheme that began when two masked men broke into a San Marino home and snatched the child.

FBI agents and San Marino police said the boy was rescued unharmed Monday from an apartment in southeast Los Angeles. The boy, who was kidnapped March 20, was rescued by a federal SWAT team and reunited with his parents, officials said.

“This is every parents’ nightmare,” said San Marino Police Chief Arl Farris. “These parents went through a very emotional time and were glad to be reunited with their son.”

Officials would not identify the child’s parents, saying only that they own a clothing company. The case is the third kidnapping of an Asian child in the San Gabriel Valley in the last 16 months.

Investigators at a news conference Tuesday gave some new details of the kidnapping and the subsequent search by authorities.

The boy’s ordeal began about 2:30 p.m. on March 20 when two masked men forced their way into the million-dollar San Marino home owned by the parents.

The men used a blanket and telephone cord to tie up the housekeeper, officials said. They grabbed the boy, who had just had a bath, covered him in a towel and took him to a car, officials said.

A short while later, the housekeeper freed herself and called the boy’s parents. The parents immediately called San Marino police.

Although the masked men demanded money from the housekeeper, kidnapping was their primary motive, said Stephen R. Wiley, special agent in charge of the criminal division of the FBI’s Los Angeles office. “It appeared to be a robbery,” he said. “But their intention was clearly an abduction and demand for ransom.”

The kidnappers demanded a $1.5-million ransom during calls from different public pay phones, beginning on the day they took the boy, officials said. They directed the parents to put the money in bags and deliver them to various locations in the county, court papers said.

A week ago, authorities left a satchel of money to lure the kidnappers to a supermarket in Rowland Heights, law enforcement officials said. But a security guard at the supermarket on Colima Avenue mistakenly picked up the package, prompting police to detain him. “The kidnappers never got any of the money,” Farris said.

Farris said his police department was aided by FBI and district attorney’s investigators, as well as leaders of the San Gabriel Valley Asian American community. Authorities conducted several searches throughout the San Gabriel Valley but would not reveal what they found.

The investigation nearly suffered a setback last week when a Chinese-language newspaper printed a story about the kidnapping. Several news organizations, including The Times, had agreed not to publish the story because police warned it would endanger the child’s life. Apparently the kidnappers did not see the story, authorities said, and did not learn that police were investigating the case.

Authorities caught one of the accused kidnappers Sunday and six others Monday. The suspects revealed that the boy was being held in an apartment on Duarte Avenue north of Slauson Avenue.

“They realized they were in a hopeless position and decided to give up the child,” Farris said.

The district attorney’s office Tuesday charged the seven--five men and two women--with one count each of conspiracy to commit kidnapping for ransom, kidnapping for ransom, conspiracy to commit home invasion robbery, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment by violence and child endangering.

If convicted on all charges, each faces life in prison with the possibility of parole, said Sandi Gibbons, the district attorney’s spokeswoman.

One defendant, Thom Huynh, 28, entered a not-guilty plea Tuesday in Pasadena Superior Court.

The other defendants are scheduled to be arraigned today. They are Kei Chang, 30; Lung Ly, 23; Sokkha Khy, 20; Bun Rang Toy, 45; and a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, prosecutors said.

They are each being held in lieu of $2-million bail. The two teenagers were charged as adults under the newly enacted Proposition 21, which allows that decision to be made by prosecutors instead of judges.

Local law enforcement authorities familiar with Asian crime say kidnappings are increasingly common in Taiwan, with a few extortion plots apparently spreading to Southern California.

In December 1998, aided by Chinese and Taiwanese police, the FBI found the 17-year-old son of a wealthy Taiwanese businessman, who had been kidnapped from his San Marino home and held 18 days for a $1.5-million ransom.

The teenager was rescued from a Temple City home after three men in China tried to collect the ransom.

The Chinese government prosecuted the three.

The two local suspects, both Chinese nationals, pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges in April 1999. Xu Lin Wang, 27, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Xue Han Wang, 26, was sentenced to seven years.

In December 1998, a 9-year-old South Pasadena girl was kidnapped during a home invasion and held for $200,000 ransom. The kidnappers were captured in Monterey Park after one picked up the ransom money and dropped the girl off in Rosemead.

Some of the suspects have been convicted and sent to prison, while others await trial.