A 26-year-old Jacksonville, Florida man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a Portland resident in a scheme that left the victim duct-taped to a post in a rural field, badly beaten, and stripped of roughly $128,000 in cryptocurrency. Billy Shane Cordova entered his plea to one count of kidnapping before U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You.
According to OregonLive.com, a related conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge against Cordova will be dismissed as part of the plea deal, and he is scheduled to be sentenced on January 13, 2027.
That negotiated range sits well below the maximum exposure Cordova faced. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1201, the federal kidnapping statute, crossing state lines to commit an abduction can carry a sentence of life imprisonment, according to Eisner Gorin LLP.
Surveillance, a Rented Car, and a Field in Banks
Per the station’s account, four Florida men flew to Portland in 2023 and rented cars through the Turo car-sharing app before conducting surveillance on the victim’s apartment, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. On November 10, 2023, the alleged abductors forced the Portland man from one vehicle into another while other members of the group entered his apartment to try to access his cryptocurrency, the report states…