Maryland’s U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday that a D.C. man pleaded guilty to participating in a kidnapping at a state casino and hotel.
Officials said that Christopher Allen Young, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The name of the casino was not disclosed.
Erek L. Barron, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the plea alongside FBI agents.
Young and the government agreed to a sentence of 126 months in federal prison if the court accepts his plea, prosecutors said.
Young’s guilty plea says that on Feb. 3, 2021, two people — designated as co-conspirators one and two — met “Victim A” at the casino, promising they would “get women for Victim A if Victim A accompanied them” to Southeast D.C.
The victim got into a vehicle with the two co-conspirators, and one of them called Young, who then called a third co-conspirator to say the two had “snatched” their victim, and to discuss robbing the victim.
Young said he would split the proceeds of the robbery among the other three and that if the victim “gets feisty, I don’t want to have to crush him,” prosecutors said.
When the car got to Southeast D.C., prosecutors said, one of the co-conspirators pointed a gun at the victim, took personal items, a cellphone, a wallet and a hotel room key. They then demanded the code for the safe in the victim’s room, hitting him in the forehead with the gun when he first refused to tell them.
The first two co-conspirators drove back to the hotel, while Young and co-conspirator three took the victim to the boiler room of an apartment building at gunpoint, with another conspirator looking out for police. Inside the boiler room, the victim was physically assaulted and his life was threatened by Young and the third co-conspirator.
Young’s plea agreement says co-conspirators one and two were caught on tape leaving the victim’s hotel room with a backpack and roller suitcase containing “an Xbox, at least $1,500 in MGM Casino chips and approximately $6,000 in cash.”
The victim is estimated to have lost at least $8,000 worth of property stolen from the room. Once the theft was complete, the victim was left alone in the boiler room.
Law enforcement saw Young and his co-conspirator leaving the area by the boiler room at 10:57 a.m., getting into Young’s vehicle and driving away. The victim was found in the boiler room “with blood running down his face and a wound on his forehead,” and also appeared to have “cuts on his mouth and eye and a broken nose.”
Young said that he told the victim: “If the police come, or anything come, I got your address. Mom … your little brother, all them is gone,” according to the statement.
U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled the sentencing for 2 p.m. on May 5.
