North Bay man abducted at gunpoint in front of kids

Photo: Google Maps A man was kidnapped at gunpoint on the 1700 block of Guerneville...

Two men were arrested and police were hunting for a third suspect after a brazen kidnapping in Santa Rosa on Tuesday evening in which the victim was driven nearly 150 miles, stuffed in a car trunk and held for ransom before escaping, police said.

Officers responded to reports of the kidnapping around 8:45 p.m. on the 1700 block of Guerneville Road. The first officers on the scene learned that the victim, an unidentified 25-year-old man, was forced into a pickup truck at gunpoint in front of his wife and two children, said Sgt. David Linscomb, a police spokesman.

Soon after, the family received a call from one of the victim’s captors demanding money in exchange for his release, Linscomb said.

The victim was driven to the Modesto area, where he was put in the trunk of a car. He was able to free himself and escape with only minor injuries, though officials would not go into detail about how he was able to escape.

A Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy stopped a stolen vehicle leaving the area where the victim was found, Linscomb said, and the two men inside — Jorge Emanuel Martinez, 26, of Turlock and Miguel Baeza Arevalo, 20, of Modesto — were arrested in connection with the kidnapping.

The third man, thought to be the gunman who took the victim from his property, had not been found and the relationship between the victim and his captors was not immediately clear.

Linscomb said the kidnapping was likely connected to marijuana cultivation and sales, a common source of crime in Santa Rosa and northern parts of the state.

A pot-connected kidnapping at gunpoint, however, was out of the ordinary, Linscomb said.

“We see a lot of crime related to marijuana growing,” he said. “But this level of violence doesn’t happen every day.”

Martinez and Arevalo were booked into jail on suspicion of kidnapping, auto theft and conspiracy, as well as other lesser charges, according to the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department. Both men were being held in lieu of $520,000 bail.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale



