Four arrested in Leander kidnapping

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Four men have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of three people in Leander last week, police said.

Samuel Cory Sikes, Kevin Brandon Radford, Andrew Stellitano and Anthony C. Almeida are all members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist group, police said. They're charged with organized criminal activity and aggravated kidnapping.

They're all from Central Texas, and the victims knew their attacker. Officials refused to release a motive for the beating and kidnapping - but they said the victims went willingly to a trailer associated where the attack later happened.

The trailer has an "association" with the Aryan Brotherhood, but officials declined further details on the home - which was described as "abandoned" last week.

Officials also said the suspects were possibly targeting only one of the victims, though all three were attacked.

Williamson County Sheriff's officials said the seven were hanging out together in the early hours on Thursday when they went to a trailer home at 4405 Oak Creek Road between Leander and Liberty Hill.

Once there, three suspects attacked two men and a woman in their group, said Sgt. John Foster of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.

The woman was bound and gagged and left at the trailer home with the third suspect. The other two were cuffed with plastic Flex-Cuffs and then beaten, kicked and hit with "a blunt object," Foster said.

Then the men were thrown into the back of the pick-up driven by the suspects, but one man jumped out near near Bagdad Road and FM 2243 in Leander and called for help from a nearby house. Shortly after, the suspects stopped the truck and discovered that the first victim had escaped - so they released the second one, Foster said.

Police were alerted to the woman in the home at 4401 Oak Creek, and tactical teams rescued her, Foster said. The four suspects had already fled the scene.

Their injuries were serious, but they were able to be treated and released from an area hospital. The victims ranged in age from 23 to 32 years old.

(Editor's note: Initial reports by the police contained the wrong address on Oak Creek. The above information is current and correct.)