By Bryan Schwartzman
A Bronx man has been convicted of masterminding a bizarre kidnapping and extortion plot involving a Springfield Gardens family in 1997.
A Queens jury in State Supreme Court Friday convicted Michael Aarons, 31, of several counts of kidnapping, burglary and unlawful imprisonment. He could face life in prison when he is sentenced by Acting State Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum next month.
Aarons, along with three accomplices, had held an elderly couple and their young grandson at gunpoint for 12 hours while demanding money from the couple's daughter, said Sherry Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Queens District Attorney's Office.
Four days after the incident police arrested Aarons and two others – Sandy Lewis, a woman, and Radcliffe Llewellyn, a man. Hunter said the fourth kidnapper, another man, has not been found.
Lewis pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges and is serving time in prison, while Llewellyn skipped a court appearance after being released on bail and is still at large, said Hunter.
Aarons and three accomplices went to the woman's Springfield Gardens home on June 4, 1997 to steal more than $400,000 they thought was in the house, according to evidence presented at the trial. He claimed he knew the woman's husband, who was in federal custody on drug charges and had told him about the money, testimony revealed.
When the foursome found the woman was not home, they held her then 62-year-old father at gunpoint while they ransacked the house looking for the money, prosecutors said. Later the father's wife and 4-year-old grandson returned and were also taken hostage, according to the evidence from the trial.
When the daughter arrived home, Aarons threatened her by saying he would shoot her in the foot and put her in a tub of scalding water so she would bleed to death, said Hunter.
Fearing for her and her family's life, the woman said the money was with a friend in the Bronx. Two of the perpetrators took her to the Bronx and two remained at the Springfield Gardens home with the woman's parents and son.
According to testimony at the trial, the two kidnappers did not find the friend with the money in the Bronx, and the woman was released at about 5:30 a.m. the next day. The kidnappers also left her parents and son in the Springfield Gardens home, said Hunter.
Hunter said that once the kidnappers released the woman, they told her she had one week to get the money or they would kill her entire family, even though they were no longer being held against their will.
But four days later she contacted the 113th Precinct and the next day the police made three arrests in the case.
Aarons faces consecutive life sentences on the charges, and will be sentenced by Acting Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum on Sept. 25.
It remained unclear whether the money actually existed or if it did, who was in possession of it.
