Invention Led to Kidnapping, Prosecutor Says

A Texas man lured his former business partner to Los Angeles with the promise of a job in the movies, then had him held against his will for eight days, sometimes in a box, in an attempt to learn where he had hidden their Buck Rogers-like RocketBelt, a prosecutor alleged Wednesday.

Both the defendant, Thomas Laurence Stanley, and the victim, Bradley Wayne Barker, are obsessed with the RocketBelt 2000, a backpack-like device they developed that can lift a person into the air, if just for a few seconds, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Korn said in his opening statement.

Stanley and Barker each invested three years and $94,000 in designing and manufacturing the device, Stanley’s attorney said.

The obsession led Stanley, 57, of Sugarland, Texas, a Houston suburb, to hire Christopher James Wentzel, 54, of North Hollywood to kidnap and hold Barker until he agreed to release the belt, Korn said.

Stanley and Wentzel, on trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, are charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion. If convicted, they face life in prison. They are now free on bail.

Attorney Dale R. Atherton, who represents Stanley, told jurors that the defendants were acting as agents of a Fort Smith, Ark., bail bonds company in detaining Barker in Los Angeles.

Barker was out of jail on a $25,000 bond when he left Arkansas for California. He was awaiting trial there for burglary, and was expected to stay in Arkansas or Texas.

But Korn, describing the events as an abduction, said Wentzel urged Barker to come to Los Angeles for a studio job, which never materialized.

Instead, Barker went to Wentzel’s North Hollywood house on Nov. 26, 1999, and was greeted by Wentzel and two other men.

“The next thing he knows, he’s in a chokehold with a gun to his head,” Korn said.

Over the next eight days, Barker was held captive, at times in a large box, and interrogated by his captors, who threatened to kill him and harm his son, before escaping on Dec. 3, the prosecutor said.

“Where’s the RocketBelt? Where’s the RocketBelt?” Korn said the men asked.

The prosecutor said he will show jurors e-mail messages from Stanley to Wentzel during that time providing questions to ask Barker.

At one point, a gun-toting Wentzel forced Barker, with one wrist handcuffed to a chair, to sign an affidavit waiving his rights to the RocketBelt, Korn said.

“Mr. Wentzel tells him, ‘You are going to sign this thing or else I’m going to blow your head off,’” Korn said.

Defense attorney Atherton said the men’s stormy relationship began in 1991 when Barker approached Stanley about building the RocketBelt. By 1994, while the device was being tested, the men fought over money and control.

“Mr. Barker did not want Mr. Stanley to fly the RocketBelt,” Atherton said, saying that Barker became so obsessed with the device that he refused to let others touch it and polished it while wearing gloves.

About that time, Stanley accused Barker of padding manufacturing costs. Then, Barker set up a company with another Texan, Joe Wright, that sued Stanley and won control of the RocketBelt. Stanley later won a $10.2-million default judgment against Barker and possession of the belt. He never got it.

The belt has been missing since 1995, despite Stanley’s efforts to hunt it down, including an offer of a $10,000 reward for its recovery.

Besides their legal dispute, Atherton told jurors, Barker once assaulted Stanley with a hammer, cracking his skull, and stalked his family.