Mistaken identity may have led abductors to UR students



In fact, according to sources close to the investigation, the two may have been kidnapped because of mistaken identity or, instead, simply because one of them — Ani Okeke Ewo — was friends with the former UR student now charged with the November robbery.Rochester police are investigating whether the two University of Rochester football players abducted and beaten earlier this month were targeted as retribution for a drug-related robbery — a robbery neither student was involved in but was allegedly committed by a former teammate and fellow student.

[Timeline: What led to the kidnapping]

Ewo and Nicholas Kollias, who were terrorized repeatedly during their two-day ordeal at a home on Harvest Street, were targeted by a group of men and women in retaliation for a robbery allegedly orchestrated by Isaiah E. Smith in Ewo's Brooks Crossing apartment a week before the abduction, sources said.

Few details of the investigation have been released officially. Assistant District Attorney Matthew Schwartz, who is prosecuting the case, on Tuesday declined to comment other than to say an indictment is coming soon.

But sources with knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the robbery of drug dealers in November prompted the retaliation that led to Ewo.

The sources allege that Smith, who is from the Bronx, lured four people he knew to be marijuana dealers to Ewo's Brooks Crossing apartment on Nov. 28 with the intention of robbing them of marijuana and money. Brooks Crossing is supervised by UR and is listed on the UR website as "upper-classmen private bedroom apartments with full kitchens" with a capacity of 170 students.

Ewo was out of town and had no knowledge of the event, the sources said.

Smith is accused of taking the four to Ewo's seventh-floor apartment. After they arrived, he and three accomplices allegedly robbed and beat the purported drug dealers.

Two of those beaten were taken to Strong Memorial Hospital for medical treatment.

As a result of a call to police from those who were robbed, Smith was later charged by the Rochester Police Department with two counts each of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and fourth-degree grand larceny. He posted $15,000 bail and was later suspended by UR, sources said.



Police are still investigating who else may have been involved in the robbery. The three accomplices have not been identified. Assistant District Attorney Christine Callanan, who is prosecuting Smith, said the four victims of the Nov. 28 robbery were allegedly pepper-sprayed at the Brooks Crossing apartment, and one was beaten with a hammer.

A City Court judge issued orders of protection prohibiting Smith from contact with any of the four who were robbed.

The details of that robbery — not including Smith's name or any connection to the abduction — were also outlined in a story Dec. 10 in the Campus Times, the University of Rochester's student newspaper, which quoted UR Department of Public Safety Chief Mark Fischer. Fischer declined to comment when asked about the robbery, instead referring questions to the Rochester police.

Following the robbery on Nov. 28, someone or a group of people, it is unclear who, set out to seek retaliation and identified Ewo as a person who lived at the apartment. The sources say Ewo was out of town when the robbery happened, but Smith had access to his apartment.

Through online and other avenues, those seeking retaliation identified Ewo as a target. It's believed that those people enlisted the help of at least one woman to contact Ewo under the guise of meeting him socially. Ewo then invited his friend, Kollias, to accompany him to that meeting.

Sources said the pair had no idea what awaited them at 22 Harvest St. even as they drove there, and were even communicating with college friends on their ride there.

Ewo and Kollias, who are both 21-year-old senior business majors from Illinois, were last seen about 2 a.m. Dec. 4 on Wilson Boulevard, which runs along the UR River Campus, and were reported missing under "suspicious circumstances" about 6:30 p.m. that day.

Court papers said Ewo and Kollias were beaten with fists and clubs and "terrorized repeatedly" amid demands for money, credit cards and bank PIN numbers. Kollias also was shot in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle, according to a criminal complaint.

Sources said the kidnappers took the keys to Kollias' BMW SUV and retrieved the vehicle, which was eventually located by police on Eiffel Place in northeast Rochester on Dec. 6 — about a five-minute drive from the location where the two men were held.

The pair were held for 40 hours until they were located and rescued Dec. 5 by a Rochester police SWAT team.

The ordeal the two students went through left even the most career-hardened veteran investigators shaken and at a loss for a comparable event, and many said they believe the SWAT operation might have saved the two men's lives.

Days later, six people were charged with kidnapping. Lydell Strickland, 26, and Dennis Perez, 23, of Rochester, Leah Gigliotti, 20, of Gates and Samantha Hughes, 19, of Perinton were charged with four counts each of first-degree kidnapping and accused of forcibly abducting and restraining the students.

The four were charged under two theories of the same crime for each defendant: One alleges that they caused physical harm during the kidnapping; the other that they terrorized the victims during the kidnapping.

Ruth Lora and Inalia Rolldan, both 19 and of Rochester, were arraigned on two counts each of second-degree kidnapping. They were accused in a second criminal complaint of helping guard Ewo and Kollias.

Court papers say neither Ewo nor Kollias "had any familiarity with the area in which they were being held, and had no method or opportunity to contact anyone outside the residence."

Defense lawyers and family members of some of the other defendants said they were caught up in Strickland's plan.

Gigliotti's lawyer, Brian DeCarolis, said his client was not even at 22 Harvest St., and that she was not involved in reaching out to Ewo. He said it appears prosecutors consider her an accomplice because of a friendship she has with another of the defendants.

A seventh person was charged last week in the abduction: David Alcaraz-Ubiles, 24, of Rochester was charged with two counts of second-degree kidnapping and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have said Alcaraz-Ubiles and the other defendants have made admissions to police about their involvement in the kidnapping. Alcaraz-Ubiles allegedly admitted being present inside the Harvest Street home and possessing a knife and mask, according to court documents.

City Court Judge Melchor Castro ordered Strickland, Perez, Gigliotti and Hughes held without bail, and set bail at $50,000 for Lora and Rolldan. Castro also issued orders of protection barring the defendants from having any contact with the two UR students for six months.

Strickland, a two-time parole violator, has served state prison time on a conviction of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, records show. He was arrested in 2011 on weapons possession and cocaine possession charges, which were resolved with a plea to attempted weapons possession. He was sentenced to two years for that crime, to be followed by two years of parole.

Records also show a 2011 incident in which he was accused of shooting a city man in the leg.

Released in 2013, Strickland returned to prison on a parole violation for drug use, corrections officials say. After another release to parole, he again was found in violation and sent back to state prison, again for drug use. He was freed in April of this year and completed his parole supervision in October.

During his arraignment, Strickland barely looked at the judge, but instead looked at people in the courtroom gallery and smiled occasionally. At a later proceeding, he had to be silenced several times by court security and threatened to punch out Assistant Monroe County Public Defender Joshua Stubbe if Castro appointed Stubbe to be his lawyer.

Police said the case has drawn the attention of media outlets from around the country, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, ABC News and even People magazine.

It has also prompted the circulation of rumors that Ewo and Kollias were participants in a "drug deal that went bad" and brought about the abduction, which sources say was not the reality and the pair were the unwitting victims of other illegal behavior.

Second-degree kidnapping, a felony, carries a potential sentence of five to 25 years in prison; first-degree kidnapping carries a sentence of 15 years to 25 years and a maximum term of life imprisonment.

UR spokeswoman Sara Miller declined to comment on the emerging details of the case.

"We’re going to honor the district attorney’s request to not comment before the grand jury returns," she said in a statement.

JHAND@gannett.com

GCRAIG@gannett.com