NEWS
December 7, 2011
Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial against a Newport Beach woman charged with asking a private investigator to kidnap her son. Niveen Ismail, 45, wanted her 7-year-old out of foster care so the two could flee to Europe or the Middle East, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney's office. According to prosecutors, in 2009 she offered an investigator a large sum of money for him to kidnap the boy from his Lake Forest foster family and take him to Tijuana.
NEWS
By Alicia Lopez, Special to the Daily Pilot | March 16, 2012
Costa Mesa police arrested a man Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping and assaulting his ex-wife's boyfriend. Carmen Mendez-Silva, 34, of Santa Ana and a second man beat the victim with a pipe or bat Wednesday and threatened him with further harm if he did not move out of his Costa Mesa apartment, police said. The victim was then allegedly placed in the trunk of a car and driven to Huntington Beach, where he was released. Police were initially called to the Fillmore Way home of Mendez-Silva's ex-wife on a child custody issue.
NEWS
By Hannah Fry | September 23, 2013
A Laguna Hills man pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations that he plotted to have an underage teenage relative - who he allegedly raped - kidnapped and taken to Mexico, according to the Orange County Superior Court website. Jesus Acosta, 58, is charged with 11 felonies, including soliciting to commit kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, rape, incest, dissuading a witness by force or threat and making criminal threats. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of violating a protective order.
NEWS
By Hannah Fry | November 8, 2013
Authorities this week took three people into custody in connection with the kidnapping, torture and genital mutilation of a Newport Beach man last year, prosecutors announced. Newport Beach police detectives arrested Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 34, and Naomi Josette Kevorkian, 33, in Fresno Friday. FBI agents arrested Hossein Nayeri, 34, Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic, where he is facing extradition, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney's office. Police first arrested Kyle Shirakawa Handley of Fountain Valley in October 2012 in connection with the crime after his name was linked to a suspicious car parked outside the victim's home on the day of the alleged kidnapping.
LOCAL
By Joseph Serna | May 12, 2010
A Costa Mesa man will face life in prison when he’s sentenced in August for kidnapping a Russian man and holding him for a $1-million ransom. Vagan Adzhemyan, 41, was convicted Monday of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping along with his accomplice, Galvin Shaun Gibson, 30, of Mira Loma. The two will be sentenced Aug. 2 in federal court in Santa Ana. The two men, along with Suren Garibyan, 32, of North Hollywood, kidnapped a Van Nuys man in July at his mother’s apartment complex and held him for ransom.
LOCAL
December 24, 2009
A Costa Mesa pair pleaded not guilty Thursday to kidnapping and extortion after police said the two were part of a group that threatened a woman trying to buy drugs in a Costa Mesa home. Juan Pablo Ojeda, 21, and Juanita Eileen Ortiz Carillo, 36, are charged with five felonies, including kidnapping for extortion or ransom, assault with a firearm and sale and possession of a controlled substance, all with sentencing enhancements for allegedly being gang-related. According to police, the two were part of a group that trapped a girl inside a Costa Mesa home on Victoria Street on Dec. 17. When the woman went in to buy drugs, Ojeda pulled a gun and pointed it at her head while Carrillo and another closed the door behind her, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor.
LOCAL
By Joseph Serna | January 8, 2010
A Costa Mesa man and his co-defendant are scheduled to go on trial Jan. 19 for allegedly shooting and kidnapping a man and holding him for a $1-million ransom in Los Angeles County, prosecutors said Friday. Vagan Adzhemyan, of Costa Mesa, and Galvin Shaun Gibson, of Mira Loma, face life in prison if convicted of federal kidnapping charges, among others, for the July kidnapping of a Russian man. A third man, Suren Garibyan of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty Dec. 30 to his role in the plot and faces 17 years and six months in prison as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
NEWS
By Joseph Serna | February 13, 2012
A Costa Mesa man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Monday for his role in a kidnapping and ransom plot that spanned the Southland. Vagan Adzhemyan, 44, was convicted in 2010 of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. His two partners, Galvin Shaun Gibson, 33, of Mira Loma and Suren Garibyan, 34, of North Hollywood received sentences of 27 years and about 17 years, respectively. The office of the U.S. attorney's violent and organized crime unit prosecuted the case.
NEWS
July 18, 2002
Young Chang Sheranne Kemme was handing out bread Wednesday to a little boy she didn't know when suddenly she, a parent to 8-year-old triplets, was made to feel like the bad guy. The parents of the little boy panicked after seeing their son, who wanted to feed nearby birds, taking bread from a stranger. They urged him to "get back here." "Here I am, with my three kids, I'm a mom, and they're worried about me," Kemme said at TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa.