She was kidnapped, beaten, forced to smoke drugs, records say. Now 2 men are charged
Two men are accused of kidnapping and holding an 18-year-old woman in a trailer in South Tacoma for about a week in April, beating her and forcing her to smoke fentanyl pills, according to charging documents.
Milo Junior Tinifu, 30, and Ottahyo William Caldwell, 22, were charged Friday in Pierce County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and obstructing a law enforcement officer. Tinifu was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle.
The defendants pleaded not guilty at arraignment Friday afternoon. Superior Court Commissioner Craig Adams ordered the men held without bail.
According to court records, Caldwell’s criminal history includes convictions for first-degree robbery, third-degree assault and witness tampering. Tinifu has two prior convictions for second-degree assault.
The woman they are accused of kidnapping told police she was held captive in a trailer in the 4600 block of South Washington Street.
Over the course of five to seven days, she said, she was punched and kicked in the head to the point of unconsciousness and threatened with a firearm. The victim said Tinifu told her that if she didn’t do what he said, “he would kill her and her whole family,” according to the declaration for determination of probable cause.
Caldwell and Tinifu allegedly told the woman she was going to have to make money for them. According to the probable cause document, the woman told police she believed the men planned to set her up on “dates” to perform sex acts for money.
Later, the woman told police she barely slept while she was held captive and that she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in several days. She said the men had forced her to smoke as many as 15 fentanyl pills from foil “to stay ‘doped up,’” according to the probable cause document. The woman said that before her kidnapping, she had been sober for nine months.
Police located and arrested the men Thursday after a police pursuit. Interviewed by police, Caldwell said he’d seen the woman a few times in the last few days, according to the probable cause document. He denied kidnapping the woman and said she’d been voluntarily “hanging out” with him and Tinifu.
The defendant denied seeing the woman’s wrists bound but said that he had seen Tinifu physically assaulting her numerous times in the past few days. Charging documents do not detail any interviews between police and Tinifu.
“Caldwell said [the victim] was going to ‘rip tricks,’ by setting up prostitution dates and then having Tinifu rob the males for their money,” the probable cause document reads.
Charging documents gave this account:
Tacoma Police Department officers responded April 27 to a cannabis shop in the 3200 block of South 38th Street for a report of a kidnapping. Officers spoke with a woman who said she’d been held captive for five to seven days in a trailer.
The woman told police that two men held her captive, one of which was an ex-boyfriend. According to the declaration for determination of probable cause, she ran to the cannabis shop for help after she escaped.
Both men had beaten her several times, the woman told police. According to the probable cause document, she had dried blood on her sweatshirt and her knees. The woman said her hands had been bound by a shoelace.
The victim escaped when the men brought her to a gas station near South 38th and South Pine streets. She told police one of the men told her to “sell a power drill to the street people,” according to the charging document. She was released from the vehicle, and once she was out of sight of her alleged captors, she made a run for it.
She made it to the cannabis shop, where employees called 911 for her and gave her a blanket.
Officers brought the woman to police headquarters to photograph and document her injuries before she was taken to a hospital for further medical evaluation.
Police canvassed the area where the victim reported she had been held, and an officer saw a man resembling Tinifu get out of a car and approach a trailer that was “nearly exactly” as the woman described. After a while, the car drove away, and police began to pursue it.
The pursuit brought police through a residential area and near the Tacoma Mall, with speeds varying between 30 to 60 mph, according to the probable cause document. The chase ended in the 6400 block of Tacoma Mall Boulevard when officers used a pursuit technique to stop the car, causing it to rotate and strike a curb and small tree.
Two men ran from the car. A foot pursuit ensued, and officers eventually took both men into custody.
