GREENSBORO, N.C. (WNCN) — A man was convicted Tuesday for his role in a North Carolina armed home invasion and kidnapping of an elderly Durham couple that drained more than $156,000 of their cryptocurrency in 2023, officials said.
The Durham crime took place at gunpoint at the couple’s Wells Street home the morning of April 12 after the thieves posed as construction workers and forced their way into the home, according to the Durham Police Department and FBI officials.
Remy St Felix, 24, of West Palm Beach, was convicted by a jury in Greensboro of nine counts of conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, wire fraud, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence, the U.S. Attorney of the Middle District of North Carolina said.
An FBI criminal complaint filed last year in North Carolina said suspects, which included Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, began as early as February 2023 targeting retirees who had cryptocurrency and that the accused men even had the license plate number for the husband’s car.
The U.S. Attorney’s news release Tuesday and previous criminal complaints outlined the brutality of the kidnapping — with the elderly couple handcuffed with zip-ties, the wife dragged on the floor by her feet and threats made “to cut off (the) husband’s toes and genitalia, to shoot him, and to rape his wife.” The husband was hit in the head during the kidnapping.
“The victims in this case suffered a horrible, painful experience that no citizen should have to endure,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina.
The suspects were able to transfer $156,853 worth of cryptocurrency during the next 45 minutes, the FBI said.
Messages sent between those involved identified actual cryptocurrency amounts and their locations, a criminal complaint said.
The two suspects also discussed in internet messages how potential victims “have so much” money in accounts that it would be “retirement licks” — the FBI explaining in the complaint that “licks” is slang for a robbery, the complaint said.
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One suspect had a photo of the husband’s North Carolina driver’s license in his email account, the FBI said.
St Felix, who will be sentenced in September, was arrested by the FBI in July 2023 on his way to commit a home invasion in New York, the news release said. Thirteen of St Felix’s co-conspirators, including members of his home invasion robbery crew, also were arrested and later pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme.