Two Minneapolis residents are in custody and have been charged in what Ramsey County authorities are calling a foiled kidnapping plot. One of the suspects recently had several hearings in other cases cancelled due to COVID-19 related court delays.
Jason Dupree Tucker, 37, and Hailey Marie June Flynn, 21, both of Minneapolis, are facing charges in the case.
According to information released by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) on Thursday, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address in Little Canada on the morning of Tuesday, May 12 to speak with a concerned parent.
The parent told deputies that a person wearing a bulletproof vest had come to their home and displayed a picture of their adult daughter with a black and swollen eye. The suspect told the parents that the victim, their daughter, had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. Other friends and family members had also received messages from the victim stating that she was in trouble and needed to raise $5,000 for her release.
Deputies used technology and warrants to identify the area where the victim’s cell phone was located, and the Sheriff’s Negotiators Team worked with the victim’s family to negotiate with the captors.
Deputies from the RCSO were joined by officers from the Bloomington Police Department in a coordinated effort to locate the victim. The victim was rescued when one of the suspects left a Bloomington hotel with the victim to retrieve the ransom payment. The victim received a medical evaluation and did not require hospitalization, the press release said.
It was later learned that the victim had been pistol-whipped the previous day, taken to a home in St. Paul, and then to the hotel in Bloomington. She was held in the bathroom of the hotel room overnight and threatened at gunpoint while demands were made for money to her family and friends.
Related: MN Public Defender Advocates for Release of Prisoners Amid Coronavirus Worries
HISTORY
Flynn was convicted in September on one count of gross misdemeanor fifth-degree controlled substance. She was granted a stay-of-imposition on the conviction by Washington County Judge Gregory G. Galler and was instead given credit for 47 days already served in jail and was released on probation.
Flynn also has several other open criminal cases. At least four of them had hearings scheduled just days prior to the alleged kidnapping incident. However, the hearings in all cases were cancelled due to the “pandemic event,” according to court records, leaving her out of custody.
Flynn’s open cases include felony theft, and three cases involving tampering with a motor vehicle, all in Hennepin County.
Flynn also has an open gross misdemeanor warrant out of Blue Earth County for fifth-degree controlled substance stemming from a 2018 case in which she was given a stay-of-adjudication (deferred prosecution) by Judge Stephen J. Ferrazzano II in August and was placed on probation.
On April 23 of this year, Flynn was arrested on probable cause auto theft in Hennepin County – again, just several days prior to the alleged kidnapping. She was released the next day without charges.
It’s been widely reported that jail inmates are being released and court hearings across the state are being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tucker is currently on supervised release (parole) as a result of a 2016 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Tucker was released from prison in July 2019 after serving two-thirds of his 60-month sentence in that case.
CHARGES
Tucker and Flynn have each been charged with one felony count of aid/abet kidnapping in the Ramsey County case, and both are scheduled to make their first court appearances on Friday. Tucker is currently being held on $100,000 bail and Flynn on $50,000 bail.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
