District Man, Ethan Moye-Gordon Pleads Guilty to Armed Kidnapping
Ethan Moye-Gordon, 22, of Maryland, pled guilty yesterday with respect to his participation in an armed kidnapping and robbery that began in the District of Columbia and continued into Maryland, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Charles A. Dayoub, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
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Moye-Gordon pled guilty before the Honorable Amy Berman Jackson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to one count of kidnapping. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Jackson on October 4, 2019.
The government’s evidence established that late in the evening on November 10, 2018, and into the early morning hours of November 11, 2018, Moye-Gordon, along with two other men, abducted the victim at gunpoint near Logan Circle and forced the victim into their vehicle. The victim reported that during the course of the abduction, he was forced into the trunk of the vehicle; he ultimately was able to pull the latch in the trunk and attempted to escape, but was unable to obtain help before he was recaptured by his captors and forced back into the vehicle.
During the abduction, Moye-Gordon and his associates forced the victim at gunpoint to provide his ATM PIN code and made physical withdrawals from numerous ATMs in D.C. and Maryland. Moye-Gordon and his associates also withdrew funds from the victim’s accounts using online banking applications on the victim’s phone.
This case was investigated by the Washington Field Office’s Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) in partnership with the Arlington County Police, Prince George’s County Police and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. The VCTF is composed of FBI Agents, along with local and county law enforcement agencies within the National Capital Region, and focuses on investigating the most egregious and violent offenders.
In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Liu, Acting Special Agent in Charge Dayoub, and Chief Newsham commended the work of FBI Agents from the Washington Field Office, MPD officers, Prince George’s County police officers, and Arlington County police officers who investigated the armed kidnapping. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Crane, Paralegal Specialist Rommel, and Legal Assistant Peter Gaboton.
