LEHI — Criminal charges were filed Monday against two men accused of kidnapping a woman in Utah County and later releasing her in Weber County.
Alan Morales Eduarte, 21, of Salt Lake City, and Jose Manuel Bastidas Gil, 22, of Eagle Mountain, were each charged Monday in 4th District Court with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies; aggravated assault and three counts of being a restricted person in possession of a gun, third-degree felonies; failing to stop at the command of police, a class A misdemeanor; and marijuana possession, a class B misdemeanor.
A woman says she was picked up by Morales and Bastidas on Nov. 1 in Lehi. Court documents do not describe the relationship between the woman and the men. But after getting into their vehicle, the woman says she “felt that both (men) were under the influence of drugs and saw ‘pink pills’ in the vehicle. Both (men) had guns in their hands,” according to charging documents.
The woman thought the men were “just playing around” until Bastidas “racked a gun and said … ‘I’m going to kill you,'” the charges allege. The men then allegedly took her cellphone.
While they were driving in Roy, the woman “saw an officer driving by and tried to roll down her window to scream for help, but Bastidas placed the gun nearly in her mouth,” according to the charges.
The woman was dropped off at an undisclosed location in Roy and the men drove off with her phone. Police tracked the phone to a motel in Lehi and went to the room where the men were staying.
“Both (men) fled the room through a window and were pursued until separately apprehended. Morales Eduarte suffered a broken heel, hand, and lumbar vertebrae in the course of his flight and was taken to the hospital. Bastidas Gil ran from the scene, went onto the roof of a nearby building, and jumped from the building into a tree before he was finally apprehended after being sprayed with water until he came down,” charging documents state.
In the motel room, police reported finding guns, ammunition “and a large amount of an as-yet unidentified pink substance.”
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