Colorado authorities have arrested three men and are looking for a fourth for their part in kidnapping and torturing their housemate for 14 hours.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said it first learned of the incident at about 10 a.m. Monday when a staffer at a hospital reported a patient who claimed he had been tied up and tortured.
The 45-year-old man had injuries consistent with being tied up, beaten, burned, and whipped, the sheriff’s office said. Additionally, one of his attackers stepped on his neck and caused him to pass out.
Eventually, another person at the home helped the victim get away and got him to the hospital.
A SWAT team executed “high-risk arrest warrants” on three suspects at the home later that day. homeowner Jason Carlson, 49, 48-year-old Sherell Allen, and 41-year-old Luke Anaya were all charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault.
The three men are being held on bonds ranging from $150,000 to $300,000.
The sheriff’s office did not name the fourth suspect, but a probable cause affidavit seen by Law&Crime named him as 39-year-old Jimmy Ray Smith II.
The affidavit said the victim told deputies he had lived at the home for a couple of weeks. He said he was in a bedroom in the basement when he overheard the four men planning to attack him and tried to crawl out a window. When he wasn’t able to do that, he barricaded himself in the room, but the men broke through the door and shot him rock salt fired from airsoft-type guns and then assaulted him.
Smith was the one who put his foot on the victim’s throat, cops said in the affidavit. They tied him to a chair with zipties and electrical tape then “took turns” hitting his knees with a baseball bat. Carlson poured rubbing alcohol on the man’s face and set it on fire, the affidavit says.
The attack continued for hours until two other people arrived at the home and stopped it. He was driven to another house, where someone else took him to the hospital.
Doctors said he had singed eyebrows, burns on his face, swollen and discolored knees, and broken thyroid cartilage on his neck.
Neither the sheriff’s office nor the affidavit describe any possible motive for the attack.
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[Featured image: Jason Carlson, Luke Anaya, and Sherrell Allen/Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office]