A Florida man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a Portland resident in a cryptocurrency ransom scheme that left the victim seriously injured in a rural Oregon field. Billy Shane Cordova, 26, entered the plea on October 9, The Oregonian reported.
Cordova admitted kidnapping the man for ransom and traveling across state lines to commit the crime. He pleaded guilty to one kidnapping count; a related conspiracy charge is expected to be dismissed.
His prosecutor and defense attorney plan to jointly recommend a prison term of six-and-a-half years to seven years and three months, with the final sentence depending on the court’s assessment of his criminal history. Sentencing is scheduled for January 13.
The case dates to November 2023, nearly a year before the four defendants were arrested in Florida in September 2024. They first appeared in federal court in Jacksonville before being transferred to Portland to face the charges.
Far From Home
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The Oregonian reported that the four men flew commercially from Florida to Portland, rented cars through Turo, and watched the victim’s apartment while waiting for an opportunity to abduct him.
Prosecutors accused the men of abducting the victim from a Portland apartment on November 10, 2023, and forcing him from one car into another. While some drove him away, others entered his apartment to try to access his cryptocurrency.
In that account, Cordova and the other abductors took him to a field in Banks, removed his clothes, bound him to a post with duct tape, and repeatedly assaulted him before leaving him there. His injuries included broken bones and a collapsed lung.
Prosecutors also accused the group of using his wallet’s “seed phrase” later that day to transfer about $128,000 in cryptocurrency to another account. A passerby found the 22-year-old victim the following morning, still duct-taped to the post, and called police at 8:33 a.m. near Northwest Mountaindale Road and Old Pumpkin Ridge Road.
Separate Paths
Co-defendant Jackson Suha Reves, 21, also pleaded guilty to one kidnapping count the week before Cordova’s hearing. Both men are being held at the federal prison in Sheridan.
Ralph Moreno Jr., 26, and Justice Uallah Del Carpio, 22, have pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.