Three people have been charged with kidnapping an actress and an actor and holding the male victim for ransom, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.
In a grand jury indictment that was unsealed today in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Keith Andre Stewart, Johntae Jones and Amber Neal were collectively charged with 17 felony counts, including kidnapping, assault with a firearm, grand theft, mayhem, conspiracy and possession for sale of a controlled substance, methamphetamine.
The charges in case BA464512 include firearm allegations for Jones and Stewart and allegations that Stewart inflicted great bodily injury on the male victim.
According to the overt acts described in the indictment, the defendants allegedly went to the South Los Angeles home of Daisy McCrackin on May 3, where Stewart pistol whipped Joseph Capone before the defendants placed black hoods over the victims’ heads and purportedly drove them to Jones’ home in Compton. Once there, the defendants allegedly stripped Capone naked and held him without food in a bathtub for 30 hours, the indictment says.
Meanwhile, Jones and Neal are accused of taking McCrackin’s vehicle, a 2011 red Lexus, and driving her to multiple bank locations while demanding she provide at least $10,000 to them for Capone’s release. McCrackin allegedly was forced to write a check for $10,000 to Neal, who deposited it into her account, according to the indictment.
Later on May 4, the defendants took McCrackin back to her South Los Angeles home, where she was able to escape and alert police. Officers located and arrested the defendants.
Stewart and Jones face a maximum possible sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged. Neal faces up to life in prison.
Bail for Jones and Neal was set at $1 million, and Stewart’s bail was $2.08 million. The defendants are expected to appear in court July 23 for a pretrial hearing in Department 116 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Kleffman is prosecuting the case.
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, Robbery-Homicide Division.
Today’s unsealed indictment supersedes case BA457139.
