Charges: Men forced kidnapped teens to drink gasoline, threatened them with chainsaw

Charges: Men forced kidnapped teens to drink gasoline, threatened them with chainsaw

(Salt Lake County Jail)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Two 20-year-old men kidnapped and terrorized a pair of teenage boys by tying them up inside a Salt Lake home, forcing them to drink gasoline and threatening them with a running chainsaw "for being snitches," according to charges filed Friday.

Fernando Osbaldo Molina, of Salt Lake City, and Oscar Eduardo Godinez-Juarez, of West Valley City, each were charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of aggravated kidnapping and two counts of aggravated robbery, all first-degree felonies.

Charging documents say Molina and Godinez-Juarez tied up the 17-year-old boys with weed-whacker wire Wednesday in a basement at 1885 W. 1700 North. The men stomped on the teenagers' "heads, torsos and legs," threatened to kill them and took their cellphones, keys and wallets at gunpoint, according to the charges.

The two men also allegedly forced the boys to drink gasoline and poured it on them. Later, Godinez-Juarez "held (up) a running chainsaw and threatened to cut up (the boys) with" it, charging documents say.

The victims were likely held captive for anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, according to police, though one of them told investigators he was unsure of exactly how long he was tied up because he was unconscious during different times of the ordeal.

At some point, one of the teenagers was able to free himself, grab a cellphone and call 911, court documents say. After he was able to do so, Molina and Godinez-Juarez said "they were going to take (the victims) to the desert and cut them up and told them to get up and walk out of the house."

The men and teens were walking out of the home when they were met by arriving officers, who had been able to triangulate the location of the cellphone call, according to Salt Lake police.

Godinez-Juarez was arrested after trying to run away, and Molina ran back inside the home, police said. A SWAT team was called to the scene, and Molina later gave himself up without incident, police said.

The boys were taken to a local hospital for injuries that were considered to be minor. Investigators said at lest one of the boys was pistol-whipped during the ordeal.

Inside the home, detectives found "a can of propane gas with a torch attached, a can of butane gas, a spool of Weed Eater line, a chainsaw, … two water bottles with gasoline in the basement, two firearms, drug packaging materials, 104 grams of field-tested positive methamphetamine, and six grams of field-tested positive cocaine in the upstairs bathroom."

Godinez-Juarez was also allegedly found with marijuana and heroin on his person.

Molina is also being investigated in connection with a shooting near 1370 W. 1000 North that seriously injured a 19-year-old man. The victim in that case was shot in the abdomen and had to get part of his colon removed, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.

Molina and Godinez-Juarez are being held in the Salt Lake County Jail.

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Ben Lockhart

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