Three men in Arkansas, including a college administrator who was later dismissed, have been charged with kidnapping an 18-year-old and coercing him to participate in Russian roulette.
The Sherwood Police Department began their investigation after the teen and his mother visited the station to report the incident. The 18-year-old had been abducted at gunpoint on the morning of September 21, according to a report from KATV.
As stated in an affidavit, the victim was helping his girlfriend by returning her car when Jackson Homan, 23, abruptly opened the vehicle door and attempted to drag him out. Homan successfully pulled him from the car and, with a gun pressed to his back, marched him to the rear of the residence. He was then forced into another car with Robert Ellerd, 54, in the back and Homan’s 19-year-old brother Charles in the front seat.
The victim recounted that both men were armed. They drove him to a house in North Little Rock, led him to the basement, and there they made him take off his shoes and socks, binding him with an extension cord. They then forced him to play Russian roulette, warning him to end his relationship with his girlfriend and leave Little Rock, threatening to harm him and his family if he didn’t comply.
Homan and Ellerd by kc wildmoon
They confiscated the victim’s phone, forced him to destroy it, and discarded the pieces in a pond before abandoning him at North Little Rock High School.
Ellerd, who held the position of director of financial aid at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, was engaged to the mother of the victim’s girlfriend.
The victim’s girlfriend told police she had witnessed the kidnapping but was too afraid to report it. She also said the three suspects were friends of her deceased brother. The girlfriend told police that her mother was inside the home at the time of the kidnapping but “did not try to intervene.” The mother told police she was “unaware” of what was going on at the time and said that Ellerd “followed” the Homans as they kidnapped the victim.
Jackson Homan’s girlfriend was also there at the time and “appeared to keep trying to distract” the girlfriend, she said.
Police said they reviewed surveillance footage from the school and identified the Homans.
Police took a SWAT team and a search warrant to the home where the victim had been held and found a shotgun, a pistol, two white cords, and .38 caliber ammunition.
The three men are charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and terroristic threatening. They’re being held on $50,000 bonds each.
Ellerd was fired from his job after his arrest.
