Seattle couple charged with kidnapping and torture

[Presto]

Seattle couple charged with kidnapping, torture of 13-year-old brother - CNN.com

(CNN) -- A Seattle-area couple is in custody for allegedly holding captive and torturing the man's 13-year-old brother for three months -- including driving a nail through the boy's hand and keeping him in a cellar for days without food, the prosecutor said Wednesday.

Brandon Gunn, 27, and his wife Viviana, 34, are in the Kitsap County Jail outside Seattle on $500,000 bail each, charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and four counts of assault, county prosecutor Cami Lewis said.
Brandon's brother is from Atlanta and went in May to stay with his brother for the summer, Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff Scott Wilson said.

"We've been crying for days," the teen's aunt, Marsha Thomas-Jones, told CNN Atlanta affiliate WSB. "My sister is devastated."

The alleged torture began as early as May 1 and lasted until the teenager escaped from his brother's cellar two weeks ago, according to the prosecutor's complaint, filed Tuesday.

Thomas-Jones said the family suspected something was wrong months ago when communication ceased, and it tried unsuccessfully to get law enforcement involved early, WSB reported.

The attorney for Brandon Gunn, Michele Taylor, was given the case only Wednesday and has not received any discovery documents, said her paralegal, Samantha Badkin. She said they don't expect to speak to their client until at least next Tuesday.

A voicemail message for Viviana Gunn's attorney, Jeniece Lacross, was not returned late Wednesday.

According to the probable cause certificate filed Monday by the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, the boy was sent to the Gunns' garage where he was duct-taped to a chair with tape over his eyes and mouth, then beaten in the head, torso and legs with a baseball bat and metal bars, losing consciousness at times.

Another time, the couple put the boy's hand in a bench vise, tightened it, and drove a nail through the his hand with a hammer, the certificate says. The boy said that time, he could see them doing it.

The Gunns duct-taped his hands and hung him from a rafter in the garage, then beat him; they also stapled his right palm with a construction stapler, heated a knife and cut him with it, according to the certificate.

The couple forced the boy to stay naked in a portable dog kennel twice for two to three days at a time, with no food or water, the certificate says. He also was forced to stay in the dark cellar for four days, and when he escaped to get food, he was punished by being beaten with a baseball bat, it says. The boy said the couple called the abuse "punishment sessions" for not doing chores or breaking household rules, and that the "sessions" would last for two to three hours, according to Deputy Sheriff Wilson.

When the boy escaped, he had been duct-taped but managed to escape by moving his hands in front of him, peeling the tape off his mouth, then chewing through the tape binding his hands, Wilson said. He forced open the cellar door and then lived on the streets for two weeks, stealing food when he could, Wilson said.

He was sleeping in a bus shelter on a Navy housing complex last Friday night when two Navy security officers found the boy and saw his injuries, Wilson said. They immediately sent the boy to a hospital where detectives interviewed him.

They saw injuries to the boy's head, face, chest, abdomen, back, arms, legs, hands and feet, ranging from fresh open wounds to wounds that were in the process of healing, the certificate of probable cause says.

The doctor also found a broken piece of metal in the boy's hand, possibly from the nail.

"In the first six hours they were able to develop enough probable cause for the arrest of the brother and the brother's wife," Wilson said. "they were arrested at 7 a.m. (Saturday) at their house."

When detectives interviewed Brandon Gunn, he denied abusing the boy, saying only that he gave him a "whooping" with a belt on his backside a few times.

Detectives searched the home and found blood stains on the wall, door, bench vise, baseball bat and chair, the certificate of probable cause says. They also found the dog kennel and staple gun, and a strong smell of urine in a corner of the cellar where the boy said he was forced to urinate, it says.
The boy is out of the hospital and living with a foster family, Wilson said.
The Gunns' next court appearance is scheduled for September 10 in Kitsap County District Court, said Lewis, the prosecutor.

That is some fucked up shit. Though, I find it odd that the boy was on the street for 2 weeks, and didn't seek out authorities, immediately.

[Energy]

According to the probable cause certificate filed Monday by the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, the boy was sent to the Gunns' garage where he was duct-taped to a chair with tape over his eyes and mouth, then beaten in the head, torso and legs with a baseball bat and metal bars, losing consciousness at times.

Another time, the couple put the boy's hand in a bench vise, tightened it, and drove a nail through the his hand with a hammer, the certificate says. The boy said that time, he could see them doing it.

The Gunns duct-taped his hands and hung him from a rafter in the garage, then beat him; they also stapled his right palm with a construction stapler, heated a knife and cut him with it, according to the certificate.

The couple forced the boy to stay naked in a portable dog kennel twice for two to three days at a time, with no food or water, the certificate says. He also was forced to stay in the dark cellar for four days, and when he escaped to get food, he was punished by being beaten with a baseball bat, it says. The boy said the couple called the abuse "punishment sessions" for not doing chores or breaking household rules, and that the "sessions" would last for two to three hours, according to Deputy Sheriff Wilson.

He did all those things to his own brother?!

[MG1]

All of a sudden pissing into a garbage can and whining to media about language problems seems trivial.

This world is full of messed up people. Doesn't matter how many good things people do for each other, stories like this really makes you stop and think.

Doesn't matter, we keep plugging away. Gotta stay positive. Don't let the scum of the earth win.

[StylinRed]

WA state seems to always hit the news with some serious fucked up shit

we're neighbours but it seems like they have a much higher proportion of nut jobs

[jack3d]

thats fucked up

[KO7]

Why is he staying with a foster family instead of immediately reuniting with his family in Atlanta? Why didn't the parents get their asses on a plane and look into it themselves after communication ceased? There's gotta be more sad facts about this story than what's presented.

[BoostedBB6]

I wonder how many people will think the death centance is not the right thing.
This guy and his wife should be killed like the animals they are. A dog attacks a boy and the dog is put down, same should go for sick people like this.

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by BoostedBB6

I wonder how many people will think the death centance is not the right thing.
This guy and his wife should be killed like the animals they are. A dog attacks a boy and the dog is put down, same should go for sick people like this.

You kidding? A death sentence is too easy. Ship 'em off to a big bad prison where their new cell mates just love to welcome child abusers with open arms...

[BoostedBB6]

Originally Posted by Lomac

You kidding? A death sentence is too easy. Ship 'em off to a big bad prison where their new cell mates just love to welcome child abusers with open arms...

Sad part is the prisons they are sent to are ones where they keep offenders seperated based uppon offenses to lower the likelyhood of this taking place.

Take them out back like "ol yeller" and do them in. I can only imagine what this kid is going through. Your own brother doing this to you.....that would mess with me for life if I were that kid.

Eye for an eye in my books......someone got a nail gun I can barrow for a day?

[Porschedog]

Set him on fire but don't let him die. Repeat.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Phil@rise]

He probably came from a fuct up family to begin with hence foster care now. That poor kid.

[highfive]

I can't even imagine how the kid went through it months and still has the strength to get out and escape.

[dlo]

not even shocked with things like this anymore.. its a cold world

[parm104]

Originally Posted by dlo

not even shocked with things like this anymore.. its a cold world

...what? this doesn't shock you!?

[Phil@rise]

this should shock you....unless you've given up on life and just doint care anymore

[SB7]

^or are part of the internet generation whose "shock value metre" has succumbed slowly and steadily, not unlike the erosion of a rocky cliff fighting haplessly against the constant battering of the ocean's waves.

[punkwax]

^

[xSin]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb

^

Damn, that gif is pretty much dead on accurate for what I am sure my face did when I read the OP

How absolutely awful... Phil is right though the poor kid probably came from a bad family and abuse has inter-generational effects... chances are probably pretty good that the father abused the older brother, older brother has now abused the younger brother and now this kid after going through something like that unfortunately has a higher probability of carrying it on as well when he gets older (If he is unable to get some serious psychiatric help for the trauma he's gone through)

[dlo]

What I meant was that ive been exposed to news about something similar to this, give or take how bad it is so im not too shocked about reading this, it is fucked up but thats how life is

[NKC ONE]

This one is hard to swallow. I can imagine a sick bastard doing this to a random kid due to psychological problems but a couple both willing to do this to a sibling is just