Couple charged with kidnapping, torture of 13-year-old relative

 

A Seattle-area couple is in custody for allegedly holding captive and torturing the man’s 13-year-old brother for three months – including driving a nail through the boy’s hand and keeping him in a cellar for days without food, the prosecutor said Wednesday.

Brandon Gunn, 27, and his wife Viviana, 34, are in the Kitsap County Jail outside Seattle on $500,000 bail each, charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and four counts of assault, county prosecutor Cami Lewis said.

Brandon’s brother is from Atlanta and went in May to stay with his brother for the summer, Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff Scott Wilson said.

“We’ve been crying for days,” the teen’s aunt, Marsha Thomas-Jones, told CNN Atlanta affiliate WSB. “My sister is devastated.”

The alleged torture began as early as May 1 and lasted until the teenager escaped from his brother’s cellar two weeks ago, according to the prosecutor’s complaint, filed Tuesday.

Thomas-Jones said the family suspected something was wrong months ago when communication ceased, and it tried unsuccessfully to get law enforcement involved early, WSB reported.

The attorney for Brandon Gunn, Michele Taylor, was given the case only Wednesday and has not received any discovery documents, said her paralegal, Samantha Badkin. She said they don’t expect to speak to their client until at least next Tuesday.

A voicemail message for Viviana Gunn’s attorney, Jeniece Lacross, was not returned late Wednesday.

According to the probable cause certificate filed Monday by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, the boy was sent to the Gunns’ garage where he was duct-taped to a chair with tape over his eyes and mouth, then beaten in the head, torso and legs with a baseball bat and metal bars, losing consciousness at times.