Man found guilty of kidnapping wife’s plastic surgeon, using blow torch to torture him

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A suspect accused of kidnapping a man, holding him hostage in a storage container and using a blow torch as a torture device was found guilty in Miami this month, federal prosecutors announced.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence to federal jurors showing that between late 2018 to early 2019, Serge Nkorina, 56, and a co-conspirator, Justin Boccio, hatched the plan against the victim, a plastic surgeon from South Florida, in order to force him into giving them tens of thousands of dollars.

According to prosecutors, the victim had once treated Nkorina’s wife.

“To learn the victim’s daily movements, Nkorina and Boccio stalked the victim at home and work and placed a GPS tracker on the bottom of his car,” prosecutors claimed, noting the two prepared in advance for the torture session by purchasing devices from hardware and medical supply stores as well as renting a storage container in Margate to use as an improvised torture chamber.

On Jan. 14, 2019, prosecutors said, Nkorina and Boccio followed the plastic surgeon from his workplace to a supermarket.

“When the victim returned to his car with groceries, they tased his neck and threw him into a van,” prosecutors said. “Nkorina and Boccio took the victim to the Margate storage container, where they tortured him for hours.”

Nkorina got the victim to give up the codes to his security gate and home by using a blow torch to burn the doctor’s hands.

When Nkorina and Boccio attempted to break into the doctor’s residence that evening, a light connected to the doorbell camera scared them off, prosecutors said. The co-conspirators decided to abort their mission and dumped the injured doctor in a strip club parking lot.

Nkorina was found guilty of conspiring to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 15.

Boccio was previously ordered to serve 135 months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

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