Kidnapped: Seven detained in drug-related abduction of San Angelo man

BLOGGER'S NOTE: Probably one of my new favorite stories to work on. I've included the breakout box because I got all the information for that and mugshots accompanied the story on the page.

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By JOE RUIZ
jruiz@sastandardtimes.com or 659-8262

Seven San Angelo residents are accused in a kidnapping that city police say happened because the alleged victim owed his kidnappers $3,000 in drug money.

Police say Wesley Dale Knight was beaten and held against his will because he hadn't paid for 10 pounds of marijuana. His captors told his mother they would settle for $1,200 and released him after she paid $880.

A witness of the alleged beating and kidnapping reported the incident to police, city police Detective Brian Bylsma said in an interview.

''The police came out here because they thought they were looking for a body,'' said Knight's mother, Susan Knight. ''Whoever witnessed the beating, it was bad enough that they thought he was dead.''

City police arrested the last of the seven suspects, all charged with aggravated kidnapping, late Thursday after six were arrested this month. Dennis Mike Cranfill, 44, was arrested in a trailer on East 29th Street after a passer-by flagged down a passing patrol car with information about Cranfill's whereabouts, according to a police incident report.

The Texas Penal Code states that aggravated kidnapping is a first-degree felony punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment of five to 99 years. All seven are being held in the Tom Green County Jail.

Knight said her son had wounds on his head and body, drag marks on his torso and had been hit with a less-than-lethal electrical weapon.

Wesley Knight is in jail on a charge of failure to identify fugitive from justice, but Bylsma declined to say whether Knight's arrest is related to the kidnapping case, citing an ongoing investigation.

Knight also faces several other charges regarding earlier incidents.

He is no longer in the Tom Green County Jail because of his proximity to the alleged kidnappers, as well as the county having more inmates than available housing, said jail official Sgt. Bill Fiveash.

A probable cause affidavit filed in district court on July 6 gives this account of the alleged kidnapping:

Knight was held against his will in May at a house on 39th Street. Knight had gone to the house after returning from a trip to Dallas, according to the probable cause affidavit signed by Bylsma.

Knight was beaten, disrobed, tied up and taken to a second spot, previously owned by Cranfill, where he was held for ransom, according to the affidavit.

Bylsma declined to identify the location of Cranfill's former house and say owns the 39th Street house, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police say Knight was beaten with a car jack by James Carl Brown, 27, before three of the others arrested came out of another room and continued beating Knight, the report states. He was then stripped, tied up and taken to Cranfill's home, according to the affidavit.

Bylsma, assigned to the city police Gang Unit, said Knight was restrained for about five hours there before being freed to make a phone call to Susan Knight, seeking money for his safe release.

According to the report, Jackie Trammell told Knight's mother her son owed the group $3,000, but would settle for $1,200.

Knight said in a phone interview she collected $880 and paid it to members of the group for her son's release.

After agreeing to accept the $880, Jackie Trammell, Troy Joshua Lawson, 30, Amanda Marlene Burney, 19 and Cranfill dropped Knight off at his home.

Police said they believe the seven defendants are associated with the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist group that originated in California prisons in the late 1960s, according to the affidavit.

Authorities at the Tom Green County Jail were notified by city police before the suspects' arrests of the group's affiliations, Fiveash said.

City police arrested Gina Trammell and Brown. Sheriff's department members arrested Jackie Trammell, Jackson, Lawson and Burney.

Gina and Jackie Trammell are siblings, Bylsma said.

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The suspects

The following San Angelo residents are accused in a kidnapping that police say involved a drug debt. Each is charged with aggravated kidnapping:

Dennis Mike Cranfill, 44

James Carl Brown, 27

Amanda Marlene Burney, 19,

Christopher Alan Jackson, 26

Troy Joshua Lawson, 30

Gina Lynn Trammell, 26,

Jackie Ray Trammell, 29

Cranfill and Jackson are being held without bond; Jackie Trammell, Lawson and Brown are being held on $75,000 bond. Gina Trammell and Burney are being held on $50,000 bond. The five eligible to post bond had failed to do so by 5 p.m. Friday.

Source: San Angelo Police Department, Tom Green County Sheriff's Office