(Kyle Handley - Orange County District Attorney’s Office)
Testimony began yesterday in the case of 38-year-old Fountain Valley man Kyle Handley, who teamed up with two friends to kidnap a pot dispensary owner from Newport Beach, because they believed he had buried $1 million in the Mojave desert.
Handley faces felony counts of kidnapping for ransom, aggravated mayhem, and torture. He's looking at life in prison without the chance of parole if he's convicted.
Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Williams was driving along Highway 14 in October 2012 when he came across a woman at the side of the road screaming for help.
She was barefoot and her hands were zip tied behind her back. Williams testified that she and her roommate had been kidnapped and that her roommate was still out in the desert and needed help.
Williams followed the woman to the crime scene after calling for help. He's still haunted by what he saw next. He saw the male victim brutally beaten and doused with bleach with his penis zip tied and severed at the base.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown asked Williams:
“When you saw (the victim), was his penis gone?”
Williams said:
"Completely."
The male victim also took the stand to testify about what happened:
“They started kicking me. They punched me. They Tazed me. They hit the bottom of my feet with a rubber hose. They used a torch and burned me. They kept asking me where I buried my million dollars. I told them I don’t have that much money."
Then the torturers threw him on the ground, cut off his penis, and covered him with bleach.
He added:
“I thought it was gasoline and they were going to burn me. I thought, ‘Am I going to die? Am I going to live?'”
Click here to read more about the trial at the O.C. Register. Trial will continue today in Orange County Superior Court.