Reported abduction leads to kidnapping, robbery charges

Posted 7/28/09

Each of the defendants face up to 30 years of prison time and $30,000 in fines.

Warrants for the three men were issued Friday afternoon. Mattson and Cuellar were arrested over the weekend and appeared in Circuit Court in Cody Monday morning. Bond …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Reported abduction leads to kidnapping, robbery charges

Posted

Three Powell-area men are facing felony charges stemming from last week's reported abduction.Jesse D. Estes, 30, is charged with robbery and kidnapping; Francisco Cuellar, 18, and Cole Mattson, 19, are charged with aiding and abetting those offenses.

Each of the defendants face up to 30 years of prison time and $30,000 in fines.

Warrants for the three men were issued Friday afternoon. Mattson and Cuellar were arrested over the weekend and appeared in Circuit Court in Cody Monday morning. Bond for Mattson was set at $20,000, Cuellar's at $15,000.

As of early Monday afternoon, Estes had not been taken into custody.

The charges follow a strange series of events last Wednesday that ended with the alleged victim bloodied and in handcuffs.

A little after 1:15 p.m., multiple witnesses reported a man down on the ground in a north Clark Street yard. An assailant was punching the man as two others stood by, witnesses said. The assailant was later identified as Estes, the two nearby men as Cuellar and Mattson, and the alleged victim as Trevor Brinkerhoff of Powell, according to an affidavit written by Powell Police Sgt. Mike Chretien and submitted in the cases.

After a passing bystander yelled at Estes to stop hitting Brinkerhoff, Estes eventually picked the man up, and with some help from Cuellar and Mattson allegedly forced Brinkerhoff — struggling — into a blue Chevy Corsica, then they drove off.

As the Corsica headed south on Clark Street, one of the reporting parties followed, keeping police apprised of the vehicle's location. Chretien ultimately stopped the vehicle near the intersection of Road 7 and U.S. 14-A and interviewed the four men.

According to the police account, Estes said the incident was an attempt to recover stolen property. Estes told police that a number of tools had been taken from his grandfather, and he had heard second-hand that Brinkerhoff had stolen them.

Spotting Brinkerhoff in a Day Street alley, Estes ran him down, and began hitting him, demanding to know where the tools were, the affidavit says.

During the punching, Estes allegedly took $159 from Brinkerhoff — which he later turned over to police, the affidavit says.

Estes allegedly wanted Brinkerhoff to take him to the tools.

In a statement to police, Brinkerhoff claimed that Estes took his cell phone, telling him, “he wouldn't need it where he was going,” Chretien wrote.

Brinkerhoff, who had blood around his mouth and nose, was arrested at the scene on an active warrant from an unrelated case in Park County District Court.

Estes, who claimed that Brinkerhoff had come along willingly, said he had not reported the theft of the tools to police.

“I told him as a result of taking matters into his own hands he was now in trouble. He said he knew,” Chretien wrote.

Comments

No comments on this story    Please log in to comment by clicking here
Please log in or register to add your comment