3 San Jose residents arrested after alleged kidnapping and torture

Authorities say defendants believed victim had stolen purses

SAN JOSE >> Three San Jose residents were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, torture, robbery and other charges for allegedly attacking a man they believed had stolen a number of purses, police said.

Duc Nguyen, 49; Kim Ho, 50; and Dayton Pham, 30, were booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of multiple offenses, including robbery, kidnapping, torture and assault with a deadly weapon, according to a news release Thursday morning from San Jose police.

The Santa Clara County district attorney's office stated that all three were facing 13 charges related to kidnapping and torture, including carjacking and vandalism. Nguyen and Ho each were charged with seven more felonies related to illegally possessing drugs and gambling machines.

Police said they began investigating after a man checked himself into a local hospital Feb. 15 with non-life-threatening injuries. The man told investigators that he had been kidnapped and held against his will Feb. 13 in the 2600 block of Million Court before eventually being released.

According to documents from the district attorney's office, the attack began when the man was struck with metal pipes and knocked out. When he awoke, he was tied up with zip ties, prosecutors said; the three defendants then allegedly interrogated him, saying they believed he had taken an unspecified number of purses from Ho and asking where they were.

Prosecutors said they robbed the victim of his phone, keys and car, and repeatedly threatened to electrocute him or to shoot his hands with a nail gun. Pham also threatened to hurt the victim's family, according to the documents.

After the victim fell asleep, the three drove him around the city in search of the purses they sought, the court documents say. At some point, they released him and he went to the hospital.

During the investigation, police said, they learned that Nguyen was also involved in an incident at a business in the 3000 block of Story Road on Feb. 14. The documents from the district attorney's office state that Nguyen approached a man at a Burger King drive-thru in San Jose, opened his door and told the man to get out of the car.

Nguyen then allegedly attempted to pull the man out of his car, then drove up next to the man's car, told him “you're done” and made what appeared to be a throat-slitting motion, according to the district attorney's office's documents. The man later found a knife sticking out of the passenger side of his car.

San Jose detectives and the department's MERGE Unit executed search and arrest warrants for all three suspects April 9, arresting Nguyen in Sunnyvale and Pham and Ho in San Jose.

Police said they found evidence related to the kidnapping, as well as illegal gambling machines and illegal marijuana for sale. Documents from the district attorney's office stated that cocaine, fentanyl and psilocybin also were found during the search.

San Jose police also said that Nguyen was a primary suspect in a string of organized retail thefts, which is being investigated by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. Officials said they had charged at least a dozen people in that investigation.