Men Sentenced in $1 Million Kidnap-For-Ransom Scheme
Vagan Adzhemyan, 43, and Galvin Shaun Gibson, 33, were sentenced to federal prison terms for a violent July 2009 kidnapping
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Two men were sentenced on Monday to federal prison terms for their roles in a $1 million kidnapping-for-ransom scheme of a Russian man who was shot, zapped with a Taser, beaten and held captive for nearly a week before being rescued by a police SWAT team.
Vagan Adzhemyan, 43, a former Armenian wrestling champ, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Galvin Shaun Gibson, 33, was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
They were convicted in a violent ambush-style kidnapping of a man at his mother's Van Nuys home.
On July 29, 2009, Adzhemyan and Suren Garibyan used a Taser to shock Sandro Karmryan before loading him into a waiting vehicle, while a relative of Karmryan was attacked, court documents said.
During the fracas, the relative accidentally shot Karmryan in his buttocks, causing severe internal wounds.
Over five days, the kidnappers evaded the cops, zigzagging across Southern California, holding Karmryan at four locations, including a townhouse and a restaurant office.
The kidnappers used Karmryan’s ATM card to withdraw cash and ordered him to call family members and associates in L.A. and Russia, demanding $1 million for his release.
During that time, the kidnappers repeatedly beat Karmryan in the stomach, the area affected by the gunshot wound.
On Aug. 3, 2009, a SWAT team raided Gibson’s Mira Loma home, where they arrested the kidnappers and rescued Karmryan, who was found lying on an air mattress and being guarded by one of Gibson’s pit bulls.
Infections from the festering bullet wound nearly killed Karmryan, but he recovered after nearly two months in the hospital and after three surgeries.
Adzhemyan, Gibson, and Garibyan, 34, were charged in August 2009.
Garibyan pleaded guilty to kidnapping conspiracy charges on Dec. 30, 2009.
He was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison.
Adzhemyan and Gibson were initially tried in federal court in January 2010, but a judge declared a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Adzhemyan and Gibson were ultimately convicted in May 2010 after a second trial.
Karmryan had paid a Russian mafia boss $27,000 to kill Adzhemyan when a loan scam the two were involved in went bad, said Adzhemyan's attorney Harland Braun during the retrial.
Braun said his client kidnapped Karmryan to learn whether Karmryan had paid someone to kill Adzhemyan.
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