DETROIT – A 23-year-old man from Detroit has been sentenced to years in federal prison for his role in a violent kidnapping tied to a mistaken belief about a carjacking.
Semaj Ayes pleaded guilty to kidnapping in March. He is one of seven people who were charged in the kidnapping. Cortez Blake and Nasir Lewis were convicted at trial, while Maijah Greene, Shatonnia Kimbrough and Armond Williams pleaded guilty. Karamoh Turner was acquitted.
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Background: 6 Detroit residents accused of kidnapping, beating woman they thought was involved in carjacking
According to authorities, Blake and others kidnapped and beat a woman they wrongly believed was involved in a carjacking. The group offered the woman a ride from a local business, but instead took her to an empty lot against her will and assaulted her.
The armed men then brought the victim to Blake’s house, where she was held at gunpoint and beaten intermittently for several hours.
The group believed she was involved in the theft of Blake’s car, but police said she was not involved in the carjacking. The two actual perpetrators, Jamar Lee-Stinson and Amiaya Bryant, pleaded guilty earlier this year to carjacking and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Authorities said the victim was punched, kicked and beaten with a bottle and hospital crutches before she was eventually abandoned on the side of the road miles away.
On Thursday, Aug. 21, Ayers was sentenced to 110 months in federal prison for kidnapping.
Blake was sentenced in December to 16 years and six months in federal prison.
Lee-Stinson and Bryant were both sentenced to about 10 years in prison for the carjacking that provoked the kidnapping.