Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Two arrested in kidnapping, robbery

Tampa police say the incident started as a dispute over a clothing business.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published June 2, 2006

TAMPA - Police have arrested two people accused of kidnapping and robbing three men in a dispute Sunday morning over a Tampa clothing business.

Police say the suspects fled to Miami but were captured when they returned to Tampa intending to kill a witness.

The suspects, Joseph K. Mann, 31, and Noemy Rivera, 20, were arrested today at a Ramada Inn on Busch Boulevard, police say. The two face charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and carjacking, according to arrest reports.

Police say the two kidnapped Teresa Morse, 31; Adam Swindell, 26; and Zepplin Cole, 31, after a fight over whether Mann should be allowed to rejoin the clothing business, which was based in a home. When Cole refused to let Mann back into the business, Cole was beaten in the head with a gun, and Cole and Morse were robbed, police say.

Morse was taken hostage at gunpoint, then beaten, and Swindell was robbed and beaten and taken to an area near Interstate 4 and McIntosh Road, where he was forced out of the car, police say.

The suspects then drove to Collier County, where they stopped at a McDonald's. That's where Morse escaped and called the Collier County Sheriff's Office. The suspects drove to Miami, where they stayed until returning to Tampa on Thursday, police say.

Acting on a tip, TPD's Street Anti-Crime Squad and the U.S. Marshal's Tampa Bay Area Fugitive Task Force arrested the suspects.

Both are being held without bail at the Hillsborough County jail.

[Last modified June 2, 2006, 15:49:17]