Kidnapper in test drive of car gets 15 years
Car salesman escaped after brutal beating
A 24-year-old man gets 15 years in prison for abducting and brutally beating a Houston car salesman in an effort to steal a muscle car during a test drive.
A 24-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for abducting and brutally beating a car salesman in Houston in an effort to steal a muscle car during a test drive last year.
William Young, of Dallas, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery using a deadly weapon, admitting he helped another man abduct Jose Martinez, a salesman at Gillman Dodge, on Jan. 4, 2016.
Young agreed to testify against his co-defendant in exchange for a cap of 15 years as he threw himself on the mercy of the court. State District Judge Kelli Johnson chose to sentence him to the maximum under the plea deal.
“They basically kidnapped Jose Martinez,” said Amanda Benavides, an assistant district attorney in Harris County. “He did make a statement, under oath and on the stand, that William Gardner, the co-defendant, was a participant in this crime.”
Gardner, a 25-year-old DeSoto man, remains in jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. He is also charged with aggravated robbery for allegedly using his own driver’s license to secure the test drive at the dealership at U.S. 59 and Beltway 8, then helping Young beat Martinez and put him in the trunk of a red Dodge Challenger worth about $40,000.
Court records show Gardner wanted to testdrive a Dodge Hellcat, a $60,000 muscle car but was rebuffed by company policy disallowing the test drive.
As the salesman rode with a man he later identified as Gardner behind the wheel, a silver car followed them.
When the driver deviated from the route and stopped in a parking lot, Martinez demanded the keys.
Instead of giving up the keys, the driver punched the salesman.
Young got out of the silver sedan and helped the driver brutally beat Martinez, then put him in the trunk.
As he rode in the trunk, Martinez called his work to say he had been abducted and opened a tracking app on his phone. After Martinez called 911, the driver stopped, and the two men beat him again, then bound his hands with clear tape and his legs with his belt.
When the duo got back in the car, court records show that Martinez heard one man say, “What are we going to do with the body?”
Martinez was able to slip out of the bindings, to pull the escape latch and to jump out of the trunk.
As he tried to flee, the two men caught him, and the struggle resumed. Martinez told police that one of the assailants dropped a gun. Martinez said he picked it up and fired a shot. That gun was not recovered, and neither suspect appeared to be wounded when they were later arrested. Martinez sustained a broken nose, bruises and cuts.
The two suspects fled in the stolen car, with Martinez’s phone still in the trunk. Police were able to locate the car, and, after a chase, the driver wrecked the car and fled on foot. Gardner was later arrested.
Gardner’s phone records led police to Young, according to court records.
“We had a tough case today,” said Young’s attorney, Tony Martin. “He’s a young man, and this was a bad case, a bad outcome, but at the same time he’s young enough I think he can learn from it. He can come back from it.”
Benavides, the prosecutor, said the victim signed off on the plea deal.
“I’m sure he’ll be very happy that the max sentence was given,” she said.