New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
A Brockton woman was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for the armed kidnapping of a Quincy man and two children.
Yesenia Diaz, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris to four years in prison and two years of supervised release. In December 2017, Diaz pleaded guilty to kidnapping.
In January 2018, co-defendant Malik Bangura, 20, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and two years of supervised release. On Aug. 23, 2018, co-defendant Sedrick Oliveira, 26, of Stoughton, was sentenced to 21 years in prison and five years of supervised release. On Aug. 16, 2018, Diego Pires was sentenced to 217 months in prison and five years of supervised release.
On Oct. 8, 2016, at approximately 10:25 p.m., a 30-year-old man was kidnapped from the driveway of his Quincy home after being struck in the head with a revolver as he got out of his truck, and dragged into a nearby sedan. The victim had two children strapped into car seats in his truck, as well as approximately 30 pounds of marijuana, at the time he was assaulted.
Once the victim was in the sedan, two masked perpetrators, later identified as Pires and Bangura, drove the victim’s truck, with the children still inside, to a secluded location where they unloaded the marijuana and $20,000 from the victim’s truck, into the sedan. The victim, who was face-down in the backseat of the sedan at gunpoint, begged for his life and the life of the two children who were still in their car seats in the back of his truck.
Pires, Bangura, Diaz, and Oliveira then drove the sedan with the drugs, cash and the victim, from Quincy to Brockton and called the victim’s wife demanding $100,000. Law enforcement officers spotted the sedan as it drove through Brockton, recognized the vehicle from a drive-by shooting that occurred in August 2016, and began to follow it. After the defendants recognized the police, they attempted to flee, but ultimately abandoned the sedan in a Brockton driveway. The victim escaped, flagged down law enforcement officers, and described to them the secluded location where the truck had been deserted. Law enforcement located the truck with the children inside, who were unharmed. Diaz was subsequently found standing by the sedan and arrested.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Mickey D. Leadingham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Brockton Police Chief John Crowley; and Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily O. Cannon of Lelling’s Organized Crime and Gang Unit is prosecuting the case.
