Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. During his playing time with the Rochester football team, Ani made 31 appearances across 4 years with some impressive tackles. When the kidnapping turn out to be a mistake of identity and resulted in complex deceit where drug dealer Smith had arranged an earlier fake robbery earlier. Find the girls and maybe they'll find the boys. University President Joel Seligman issued a statement Monday saying: 'I will, at an appropriate time in the near future, be able to provide more detail about this very serious, but isolated, incident. The New York Daily Newsreports Kollias has since graduated and moved back to the Chicago area, where he still undergoes physical therapy twice a week and works in financial services. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both University of Rochesterfootball players from Illinois, were lured to a home for what they thought was a Saturday night house party. Some defendants and, at times,victims' names, were redacted in the indictment. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. University of Rochester students Ani Okeke Ewo, left, and Nicholas Kollias are seen in undated photos distributed by authorities after their 2015 abduction. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. They drove into a rougher area of town and the guys got a little worried, but they still followed the two women into a house. "They didn't want to go in my apartment and they suggested that we go over to their place," said Nicholas. Inalia Rolldan and Ruth Lora, the woman who lured Kollias and Ewo into the trap, were each sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and weapons charges. Authorities have said that UR seniorsAni Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kolliaswereheld and terrorized for 40 hours before beingrescued by a Rochester police SWAT team. 2023 Telepictures Productions Inc. 2023 www.democratandchronicle.com. Matthew Schwartz, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, marveled that the students were able to survive. Authorities later said they had been targeted in a case of mistaken identityafter marijuana dealers were beaten and robbed by someone else at Ewo's apartment a month earlier. Aisha Hinds: Age, Family, Career, Is She Gay? Prueba Audible gratis durante 30 das. The assailants, who took the UR student's credit cards, ATM cards and telephone, seemed almost gleeful, according to the testimony. It shows males can be survivors as well. Then the camera swings right to reveal Nicholas curled up in pain as the kidnappers throw slurs and prod his injured leg. It is not clear why they were targeted. Alcaraz-Ubilies is accused of kidnapping, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. "It was exhausting," said Peters. The students were reported missing Saturday evening, hours after they were last seen near the school. This provider has 31 years of experience and is affiliated with Leesburg Regional Medical Center. "After about six hours we were able to get a couple of good locations where these girls last saw Nico and Ani," said Peters. A SWAT team rescuedKollias and Ewo that Sunday night from a home some four miles from the Rochester college campus. His gridiron goal became a reality at the University of Rochester in New York. Ewo and a female acquaintance had been flirting via Facebook, and that woman had invited them over. In December 2015, Nicholas Kollias and fellow senior Ani Okeke Ewo, both University of Rochester football players, were kidnapped near the New York campus. Fourth UR abduction defendant accepts plea. "This is a once-in-a-career rescue. "Trying to track down the two women that they had met up with," said Peters. But soon the changing scenery catches Nicholas's attention. Five men and four women, all Rochester-area residents in their late teens and early 20s, were convicted of kidnapping and other crimes. It was not just about money, but revenge. After a month-long trial, all four defendants are found guilty on all counts. "They were just spraying bullets everywhere and they were putting the gun down our throat and putting the gun to our body and just moving it at the last seconds," said Nicholas. TIME AND LOCATION: In the last half of the 18th century, migrants from the Creek towns of southern Georgia moved into northern Florida, the former territory of the Apalachee and Timucua. "First of all both phones were turned off. ", "At first I was kind of scared because there was more individuals just covered in body armor and these huge guns, I was just terrified," said Nicholas. He was scared, but throughout the whole ordeal he kind of had this like optimistic view, 'They're going to release us,' but it was hard for me to kind of see that light. 9,99 /mes despus de 30 das. The girls must have liked what they saw. At trial, Kollias and Ewo testified about their horrific experiences. And one of Ewo's high school football coaches says he's heard that the two thought they were going to a party when they came across the gang of kidnappers, according to ABC 13. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Authorities have said that UR seniors Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias were held and terrorized for 40 hours before being rescued by a Rochester police SWAT team. Though saying he had no information to support the alleged connection, Seligmansaid UR was working with local police, UR Public Safety and campus housing to "strengthen campus safety and to address drug use on campus. According to Kollias, the lights went off and a group of men rushed into the dark room and 40-hours of hell began. The ringleader, Lydell Strickland, played a starring role in that video. "And I was holding Ani's hand and I just knew that like one of these bullets were going to hit me and I was going to die.". The two women have pleaded guilty to crimes and may testify. "I was the one that got the majority of all of the beating and abuse, and so, you know, it was just not a good experience to have someone who you thought you could trust and just kind of being the complete opposite to you.". Samantha Hughes: Two counts of first-degree gang assault. "I'm not going to close my eyes. As the investigation begins, cops find a stomach-churning video on one of the violent kidnapper's cellphones. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. He's also a classical pianist. (Rochester Police. They accept 4 insurance plans. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both 21-year-old students, were lured to a house several miles from campus for what they believed was a party. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Darla Crane Age, Full Biography, Where Is She Now? "So I said 'Sure. "The cellphone video was clearly, in my opinion, the most essential piece of evidence and perhaps yes, also the most damning as well," said Schwartz. "I'm not going to close my eyes. After hours of torture, the masked men leave. The investigation into the students disappearances is ongoing. In one video he actually pulls up still wearing a mask that he was wearing during the other cellphone video.". By Find service information, send flowers, and leave memories and thoughts in the Guestbook for your loved one. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Forty hours later, one of the captors decided to let them go when a SWAT team entered the house freeing the pair. Also the fact that they had been out of contact with everybody else.". He says after Isaiah Smith was arrested, a football coach bailed Smith out of jail, then failed to inform the student body of the severity of the crime, all in an attempt to give their star athlete preferential treatment. "The university was just completely negligent in what they did," said Nicholas. "The individual who was nicknamed 'The Caretaker' came into the room, and this was the only time I actually saw any of the individuals' faces without a mask on," said Nicholas. Hearings to determine attorneys for the others are expected later this week, a court employee said. Kollias went into detail about the assault to one media outlet and stated that he thought it would be the end of his life, but he was going to go out fighting. "At this point I got clubbed over the head, put on the ground. Cops say Isaiah Smith then used that apartment to rob Lydell Strickland and his gang of thugs. The second thing was both gentleman were prolific on social media, always updating what they were doing, where they were, and that it stopped cold Friday night. The Chicago Tribune revisits how the classical pianist and athlete from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook was kidnapped on the night of Dec. 4, 2015, along with fellow student Ani Okeke Ewo, after . YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. A former Upstate New York studentis speaking out for the first time about the abuse and torture he suffered when abducted in December 2015. Second person pleads guilty in UR kidnapping case. "This is gonna be a hostage rescue," said Peters. "So it was almost as if they were like trying to cover their tracks.". Ricky Ross has a handle on good business practices, Michael Maliakel and Dennis Stowe discuss diversity of Aladdin Broadway cast, Afro B taps into his traditional sound with latest song Casamigos, Timbaland was inspired by Mother Nature for some of his biggest hits, Beauty entrepreneur Aaliyah Thompson named a McDonalds Change Leader, Larenz Tate thinks Hollywood values Black British actors more. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Copy Link Copy Link Summary; 2 former friends, football players, and frat brothers, get kidnapped, assaulted, and help captive for 40 hours. Disfruta de Audible en tu smartphone, tablet, ordenador o Amazon Echo. So it was definitely a case of mistaken identity," said Scott Peters. "I didn't think I was going to make it until (that) Monday," Kollias, 23, told theChicago TribuneTuesday. Seniors Ani Okeke Ewo of Aurora, Illinois, and Nicholas Kollias of Northbrook, Illinois, both 21, were last seen Saturday around 2 a.m. near campus in a white 2005 BMW SUV, according to the . They were instead held . Five men and four women, all Rochester-area residents in their late teens and early 20s, were convicted of kidnapping and other crimes. The following day, a police SWAT team entered the house, rescuing the students, and nine people were eventually arrested and charged in the horrific incident. Smith was also charged and was given a 13-year sentence for the robbery that triggered the later events while the two ladies who were used as bait were given over 12 years each for their part in luring the men to the house. Dec. 7, 2015 St. Petersburg College has a campus in the city. All rights reserved (About Us). What Is The Use Of Judging Matters Show? When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Kollias and Ewo were lured to the Harvest Street home by two women they did not know late one Friday night. ", "I thought the house was being burned down," said Nicholas. Throughout the weekend, Kollias said he could hear the sounds of numerous people coming and going from the house At one point, Kollias said he heardmen and womenwatching football games on television in an adjacent room. According to the Post, Kollias and Ewo, both of whom played on the university's football team, were targeted becauseStrickland and his co-defendants mistakenly believed that they were involved in the robbery of a group of drug dealers in November 2015. It's believed that the first four lured University of Rochester football playerAni Okeke Ewo and former football player Nicholas Kollias to a house on Harvest Street and proceeded to beat them with fists and clubs, demanding their money, credit cards and bank numbers. This week Evil Talks: Chilling Confessions spotlights the disturbing case of Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias, who were kidnapped and tortured in a drug related revenge attack. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both University of Rochester football players from Illinois, were lured to a home for what they thought was a Saturday night house party. University of Rochester Public Safety officers and Rochester Police know the clock is ticking. "It's clearly his face. Brian DeCarolis, who was hired to represent Gigliotti, said the two men appearde to have been misled to the apartment. Police said Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, and Ani Okeke Ewo, of Aurora, Illinois, were abducted and held hostage, and one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Kollias was with him at the time of the kidnapping. Friends and family contact the University of Rochester Department of Public Safety, which alerts Rochester Police. Im not going to close my eyes. Nicholas is beaten with a hedge-trimmer, a bat, a pipe, then hit over the head again, this time with a fluorescent bulb. "There was two suspects inside the living room, took them in custody," said Peters. A former Upstate New York studentis speaking out for the first time about the abuse and torture he suffered when abducted in December 2015. "At that point she really wasn't free to leave.". "Then before I knew it we showed up at the house.". They don't even know if it's the right house. Lydell Strickland, 26, Dennis Perez, 23, and Leah Gigliotti, 20, all of Rochester, and Samantha Hughes, 19, of Pittsford, are charged with first-degree kidnapping, while Inalia Rolldan, 19, and Ruth Lora, 19, both of Rochester, face charges of second-degree kidnapping, a Rochester Police spokeswoman tells PEOPLE. Privacy Policy | There was just that much," said Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Matthew Schwartz. Lydell Strickland: Two counts of first-degree gang assault, six counts of first-degree robbery, twocounts of second-degree robbery, nine counts of first-degree predatory sexual assault, first-degree criminal use of a firearm and multiple counts of third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The remaining five defendants have all already pleaded guilty to various roles in the incident. What Nicholas doesn't know is that the cavalry is on the way. ", "We rolled the dice on the first house we hit was the correct one," said Peters. The gang members arrested were Lydell Strickland, 26, Dennis Perez, 23, Leah Gigliotti, 20, Samantha Hughes, 19, Inalia Rolldan,19, and David Alcaraz-Ubiles. "I didn't think I was going to make it until (that) Monday," Kollias, 23, told theChicago TribuneTuesday. He's also seen in other damning videos cops found around town. The abductors used two women to persuade the UR students to go with them to the Harvest Street house. Neither of them are making it easy for investigators. Kollias also was shot in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle, according to a criminal complaint. "Two different girls.". Then they find the second girl, Leah Gigliotti. Ani Okeke Ewo has never been considered anything other than a victim. "They were extremely organized," said Nicholas. "I started to notice that the neighborhood was not so good anymore," said Nicholas. She was with her friend and 20-year-old Leah Gigliotti to pick up Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo. 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Ani Okeke Ewo (left) and Nicholas Kollias (right), both 21-year-old students at the University of Rochester, were abducted and held hostage for 43 hours until a SWAT team rescued them. Over the next 40 hours, the pair were repeatedly tortured and sexually abused, including being cut with knives and a chainsaw and being doused with flammable liquids. It is surrounded by Pinellas County enclaves in all directions. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. "They had nicknames. We continue to believe this was an isolated incident and wish to stress that our campus is safe.'. On December 4, 2015, Ani and Kollias were hanging out with their friends from the football team, when they were approached by a lady Samantha Hughes, who tried to friend the two players on Facebook earlier in the week. "I said 'Here's the two locations, plan cold hits on both houses, you're gonna do one and then we're gonna have to do the second one if the first house wasn't right.'". What the bad guys didn't know is you can't access those funds on the weekend, so they were waiting until 8 o'clock in the morning when they could actually access those accounts, and I'm sure once they did that they probably would have killed them.". There was no evidence presented at trial that Ani was in any involved in planning or carrying out the kidnapping. Leah Gigliotti:Two counts of first-degree gang assault. Nine people were accused of roles in the abduction and torture of the two men. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. As Christine and I got ready for this trial, it was harder to figure out what we weren't going to use than it was to figure out what we were going to use. There, they. "She was trying to give us the runaround. They were instead held against their will, beaten, shot and sexually assaulted over the course of 40 hours. When the woman invited him to a party, Ewo asked if he could bring along Kollias. Police said Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, and Ani Okeke Ewo, of Aurora, Illinois, were abducted and held hostage, and one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. All rights reserved. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". "It essentially showed 30 seconds of torture, and when you put that in perspective that was only 30 seconds out of almost 40 hours, so you can only imagine what they went through during the other 39 hours and change.". ROCHESTER Six people were arraigned Tuesday in the kidnapping of two college students who investigators said were forcibly restrained for more than 40 hours and repeatedly beaten until a Six people have been charged in the abduction of two University of Rochester students, PEOPLE confirms. Rochester Police launch a full investigation, getting search warrants for the boys' phones and Facebook accounts. Dr. Nikolaos Koutsonikolis, MD, is a specialist in anesthesiology who treats patients in Ocala, FL. "I'm not going to give up without a fight," he recalled thinking. However, on Sunday evening there was a huge explosion and flash as the SWAT team burst into the house and rescued the two men. Sadly, Nicholas and Ani are no longer friends. They just looked like they had been through hell. He also had shards of glass embedded in his eardrum when a light bulb was smashed on his head. Ashley Collman For Dailymail.com The five receive sentences of 13 to 35 years in prison. Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). "They put flammable liquids on us, saying they were going to light us on fire," he said. The two friends were the. They soon catch a break when they track down the girl who messaged Ani. "Very quickly he ran back inside and shut the door," said Peters. It's deeply disturbing. For 40 hours, Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo were tied up in a bedroom in the house at 22 Harvest Street in Rochester. December 4,. -- University of Rochester Spokesperson Sara Miller. According to the Tribune, the jury was also showna video, shot on a phone by one of the kidnappers, of men in masks with chainsaws, beating and demeaning the victims. But Nicholas wasn't all tackles and touchdowns. He was then hit in the head with a baseball bat and dragged into the bathroom along with Ewo. Five have pleaded guilty; four are now on trial before state Supreme Court Justice Alex Renzi. Nicholas is now trying to move on with his life. The two students, Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, were reported missing Saturday after they were last seen near campus in the early morning hours. UR abduction case:. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Associated Press While one of the kidnappers records, two of the others are seen threatening Ani Okeke Ewo with a hedge-trimmer, and then prodding Nicholas lying on the floor covered in blood. At trial, Kollias and Ewo testified about their horrific experiences. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. University of Rochester students Ani Okeke Ewo, left, and Nicholas Kollias are seen in undated photos distributed by authorities after their 2015 abduction. The population was 10,890 at the 2000 census. "One of four boys, just a really close-knit family, very caring parents," Nicholas tells Crime Watch Daily. "They were in a nice car. Perhaps, had the campus authorities had not ignored Smiths drug dealing due to his talent on the football field, then Ewo and his friend wouldnt have suffered any of the events. She had to go to work, so she said 'Can I meet up with you tomorrow and we can finish this,'" said Deputy Chief Scott Peters. Cancela en cualquier momento. Few details have been released about the case so far, and even the defense attorneys of some of the suspects say they haven't received a full story about what happened. That's when I thought it was all over.". In November, four of those defendants received sentences ranging from 13 to 35 years in prison.

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