Men Sentenced To Life For Kidnapping

RALEIGH – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced that in federal court yesterday, Senior United States District Judge W. Earl Britt sentenced AKIN SEAN EL PRECISE BEY, 47, of Knightdale, North Carolina to life imprisonment.

On December 7, 2015 a federal jury convicted BEY of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping and for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.  A coconspirator GEORGE LINCOLN STANLEY IV, 47, of Durham, North Carolina was also convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping and was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 6, 2016.

Two other individuals, HUBERT DIXON, 43, of Durham, North Carolina, and JUDSON HUGH DEBNAM, 34, of Raleigh, North Carolina, were also charged with crimes related to this incident and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery.  DIXON was sentenced to 47 months’ imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release on March 28, 2016.  DEBNAM was sentenced to 48 months’ imprisonment followed by 3 years supervised release on September 26, 2016. 

Evidence presented during the trial showed that the victim was kidnapped from his home after returning from attending a boxing match in Las Vegas.  The victim was targeted for kidnapping due to the belief that he had access to large amounts of cash.  The defendants broke into the victim’s house and waited for the victim to return home from Las Vegas.  Upon the victim’s return home, the defendants attacked him, restrained him, and ransacked his home in search of cash.  The defendants then drove the victim to a storage unit where the victim was held and tortured as the defendants demanded more money.  A large sum of cash was ultimately taken from the victim.  At the time of their arrests, BEY had over $55,000.00 cash in his home and STANLEY had over $21,000.00 cash in his pocket. 

Crime scene technicians recovered the kidnappers’ fingerprints, as well as the victim’s blood, within the storage unit.  Zip ties were still attached to a chair within the storage unit and the victim’s personal identification was located on a table.  The victim, who was severely injured with a swollen eye, broken leg, ligature marks on his wrists and ankles, and duct tape still attached to his face and neck, was eventually located by law enforcement on a dark dirt road in Nash County, North Carolina.

A search warrant executed at BEY’S house uncovered six firearms; an AR-15 rifle, .32 caliber pistol, Judge Long Colt revolver, .40 caliber pistol, .38 caliber revolver, and a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun.  At the time, BEY was prohibited from possessing any firearms as he had been previously convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Raleigh Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification, State Bureau of Investigation, Wake County Sheriff’s Office, Durham County Sheriff’s Office and Johnston County Sheriff’s Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Holbrook and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dena King represented the government.