Girl Kidnapped During Robbery Is Released After Ordeal

GARDEN GROVE — A 15-year-old girl abducted during the robbery of a fast-food restaurant was released Friday after a terrifying night with two men and a prostitute at a Long Beach motel, police said.

The men, James Barron Martin, 33, and Donald Ameche Morse, 37, both of Westminster, were arrested at the motel, said Garden Grove Police Capt. Dave Abrecht.

Police said the Anaheim girl was abducted about 10:15 p.m. Thursday as she stood with her boyfriend in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. Officers said the men grabbed the boyfriend as a hostage, robbed the restaurant, then grabbed the girl, leaving the boyfriend behind, and drove off.

The robbers told the girl that she just happened to be “at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said later at her home.

The men drove to the Chief Motel in Long Beach, investigators said. A short time later, one of the men left “to go get another woman” and returned with a 33-year-old prostitute, police said. The girl said she sat in a corner of the room, forced to watch as the men and the woman repeatedly had sex, smoked crack and drank beer through the night.

Police said the girl told them she had been sexually assaulted. But interviewed at her home, she said the men had not assaulted her.

When the prostitute wanted to go to a liquor store down the street, one of the men became angry and attacked the woman, the girl said. The woman suffered a broken jaw, a bloodied nose and a black eye, police said.

In the morning, the men saw a televised news report about the kidnapping and became alarmed, investigators said. About 8 a.m., one of the men drove the girl to Artesia Boulevard and Orange Avenue, gave her a few dollars and left her there, police said.

Within minutes, an officer drove by and the girl frantically flagged him down and directed him to the motel, police said. Officers said they found both suspects and the prostitute inside.

Martin and Morse were booked on suspicion of kidnapping.

Bail was set at $600,000.