Three men who escaped from a Georgia jail last month have been indicted on federal charges in South Florida related to the kidnapping of a Lyft driver before they were caught in Broward County.
A federal grand jury in Miami returned indictments on Wednesday against Stevenson Charles, 24, Yusuf Minor, 31, and Naod Yohannes, 25, in connection with the Dec. 22 kidnapping that began near Atlanta. They are charged with conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Charles is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
On the morning of Dec. 22, corrections officers at the DeKalb County Jail, located 15 miles outside of Atlanta, found that Charles, Minor and Yohannes had escaped some time between the evening before and early that morning, according to a criminal complaint.
The Lyft driver accepted a request for a ride that came from a woman’s account early that morning, and she met the three men instead when she arrived for pickup, according to the complaint. She “recalled feeling uneasy” but drove them to their scheduled destination.
Once the woman unlocked her car doors to let the men out, one of them wrapped a rope around her neck, and she was dragged into the backseat of the car and her hands tied together, the complaint said. The men told her to look down and keep her eyes closed, the Lyft driver told authorities once she had been recovered from the kidnapping.
The woman was repeatedly told she would be killed if she did not follow their commands or if she struggled. For as long as 10 hours, the woman was held inside the car with the escaped inmates. Based on their conversations, she surmised they were inmates who had escaped, the complaint said.
The U.S. Marshals Service contacted FBI Miami’s Violent Crime and Fugitive Task Force after the inmates escaped and shared the details of the Lyft driver’s car. The car passed through license plate readers in Broward and Miami-Dade County, and law enforcement began surveilling them, according to the complaint. Investigators also learned as they surveilled the car that the victim’s credit card had been used to rent an Airbnb in Miramar.
Charles was driving the car and Yohannes was his passenger when authorities pulled them over, the complaint said. Charles tried to run away after the traffic stop and tossed a loaded 9mm handgun away as he ran, but he was arrested. Yohannes was arrested near the car. Both men had the Lyft driver’s bank cards on them when they were arrested.
Minor was found at the rental home in Miramar with the victim, where he surrendered to law enforcement, the complaint said.
The Lyft driver told authorities that the men used her bank cards at multiple locations and that she had tried to escape at one point after they crossed into Florida, according to the complaint. One of the men assaulted her for trying to escape, and she was increasingly threatened to be killed or assaulted after, she told authorities.
All three are held in the Broward Main Jail.