This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police rescued two teens and arrested two men who allegedly kidnapped and terrorized them in a westside garage early Wednesday.
SLCPD Detective Robert Ungricht said officers responded at 1:38 a.m. to a 911 call from a home in the 1700 North block of Rose Park Lane (about 1900 West), where they found the two male juveniles tied up in the open garage with weed-eater line, and soaked with gasoline.
As officers moved in, one of two male suspects ran away from the house and was quickly apprehended, while the other ran inside the home and surrendered after SWAT officers arrived.
One of them, identified as 20-year-old Fernando O. Molina, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail. The California man was being held without bail on suspicion of first- and third-degree felony aggravated assault charges, second-degree felony kidnapping, and third-degree felony use of a firearm by a restricted person.
Ungricht said Molina also was being looked at for possible involvement in a gang-related shooting about two weeks ago that seriously wounded another youth.
The second suspect, 20-year-old Oscar Eduardo Godinez-Juarez, also from California, was booked Wednesday afternoon on similar felony counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, along with drug possession —in conjunction with a large quantity of heroin allegedly found in his possession — as well theft charges. His bail was set at $25,000.
Ungricht said the men and three youths had met at the house to discuss an unspecified debt.
Godinez-Juarez allegedly admitted pouring gasoline one the teens and even forced on of them to drink some "to scare them," according to a probable cause statement filed with the jail.
Molina participated in forcing gasoline into the victims' mouths, and also hit them in the face with a gun, the probable cause statement says.
One of the teens managed to escape, however, and called for help.
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