ST. LOUIS (AP) - A court testimony reveals that a drug debt to a St. Louis entrepreneur and his associates may have been the motive in the November kidnapping of a Maplewood man.
Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer Brent Nanney presented his testimony at a court hearing Monday, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (https://bit.ly/2jmnG2v ) reports. BAM Brands CEO Todd Beckman and four others were indicted last month on kidnapping and other charges in the case. Monday’s hearing was called by Beckman co-defendant Kerry Roades, who is seeking to be released on bond before trial.
Beckman and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty in the case.
Nanney testified that Roades and Beckman discussed killing the victim in a variety of methods.
Nanney said the victim was abducted Nov. 21 and taken to a home in Pacific where he was beaten, assaulted and attacked with a stun gun before being transported to a shipping container on Beckman’s property in Fenton and held for a night.
The victim was released after relatives paid the kidnappers $27,000.
Nanney says the motive for the kidnapping was that the victim owed money to one of the kidnappers who got marijuana from Beckman.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, https://www.stltoday.com
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