"Reports: U.S. Marines beat, choked man over alleged affair"

From: The Bakersfield Californian

The man traveled to Bakersfield early Sunday in the belief he’d be spending time with the woman he loved.

But when he arrived at her south Bakersfield residence, three men wearing hockey masks punched, kicked and choked him to the point of passing out, according to police documents. The woman listened to the beating from a back bedroom.

The documents say the defendants — including Sergio Medina, the woman’s husband — are infantrymen in the U.S. Marine Corps. Medina, 20, Rodrigo Sanchez, 19, and Leonardo Ortiz, 19, have pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping with bodily injury and robbery, and are being held on $500,000 bail.

The victim was interviewed by police Sunday morning. He said he had arrived in the 2800 block of Lee Drive after receiving a Snapchat message from Diana Reyes, whom he met in 2012 and with whom he’d once been romantically involved.

The man said they talked often on social media about her marital troubles, according to the documents filed in Kern County Superior Court. She’d been trying to get him to come to Bakersfield, and he arrived at her home about 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

When he parked nearby, he received a Snapchat message saying, “Come in the door is unlocked,” the documents say. The man entered the home and was approached by three men in hockey masks who immediately began beating him.

They forced him to the ground and bound his wrists with zip ties, the documents say. Then they placed a belt around his neck, and the man told police he struggled so hard to breathe he nearly lost consciousness.

The documents say one of the men, whom the others called “Sergio,” asked him what he was doing at the house. He told him he was there to meet Reyes, and Sergio asked if he knew she was married.

The man said he believed she was getting a divorce and he was in love with her. The men laughed at him.

They held him captive for about 30 minutes, and released him after taking items including his cellphone and wallet, the documents say. They threatened to kill him.

“We know where your family lives and have your driver’s license, so don’t go to the cops,” the man said his assailants told him.

The defendants and Reyes followed the man as he drove from the neighborhood, the documents say. The man eventually parked at a 7-Eleven near Real Road and punched his vehicle’s OnStar button for medical assistance.

Police were contacted after he was taken to a hospital with injuries including an orbital fracture with his left eye swollen shut, bruising to his head and entire body, and swelling to his head and neck. The documents say abrasions were visible on his wrists and neck.

Police soon stopped Medina in a vehicle, and found Sanchez and Ortiz at a residence in the 5500 block of Monitor Street.

Medina admitted to assaulting the man, and he helped police locate some of the stolen items, according to the documents. He told investigators he had already destroyed the man’s cellphone, and police found other items had been partly burned.

Reyes told investigators that Medina told her to stay in a back bedroom shortly before the victim arrived, the documents say. She said she heard the men pummeling the victim.

Reyes said she and the victim never had sex, but she once kissed him while her husband was on deployment, the documents say. She also told detectives her husband knows her Snapchat password.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/breaking-news/2015/09/24/reports-u-s-marines-beat-choked-man-over-alleged-affair.html