Knightdale, Durham men convicted of kidnapping man after Las Vegas boxing match

A federal jury on Monday convicted two men from Knightdale and Durham of kidnapping a man in May after he returned from a Las Vegas boxing match and then locking him inside a storage unit.

Akin Sean El Precise Bey of Knightdale and George Lincoln Stanley IV of Durham were accused of breaking into a man’s home while he was out of town and lying in wait for him. When the man returned from Las Vegas, Bey and Stanley beat him badly, according to prosecutors, and then took him to a storage unit where he was held against his will and tortured further.

The victim was severely injured with a swollen eye, ligature marks on his wrists and ankles and duct tape on his face and neck when law enforcement officers found him on a dirt road in rural Nash County, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of North Carolina,. The release did not include the victim’s name or say where he lived.

Bey and Stanley were convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, while Bey was also convicted of a firearms charge.

Prosecutors say the men ransacked the victim’s home, looking for money, then demanded more money after taking him to a storage unit where he was confined with zip ties. Investigators later found fingerprints from Bey and Stanley at the unit, as well as the victim’s blood, prosecutors say.

The kidnappers stole a large sum of cash from the victim, according to the release. It was unclear Monday why the victim had so much cash on hand. He returned home from Nevada shortly after the high-profile boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. It was unclear from the release whether the victim had attended the fight or bet on it.

Efforts to reach the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office late Monday were unsuccessful.

Bey, one of the kidnappers, had more than $55,000 in his home when it was searched, according to investigators, and Stanley had $21,000 in his pocket.

The search of Bey’s house also turned up six guns – a .32 caliber pistol, a “Judge Long Colt revolver,” a .40 caliber pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, a rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun. Bey was prohibited from possessing firearms at the time of the kidnapping because of an earlier conviction.

Two other men – Hubert Dixon of Durham and Judson Hugh Debnam of Raleigh – also have been charged with crimes related to the kidnapping. They have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery, according to the release from the U.S. Attorney’s office. Sentencing is set for March.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Knightdale, Durham men convicted of kidnapping man after Las Vegas boxing match."