A 35-year-old man arrested Saturday while boarding a Chicago-to-Miami Amtrak train carried a Lankybox plushie toy, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure — and a plan to kidnap a child from a Fort Lauderdale school, federal agents say.
Homeland Security Investigations agents say they had something, too — text messages as Devontay Shields planned the kidnapping:
“All we got to do is grab one of the kids and holding them, but, it got to be, like, a smaller kid because we can convince them with candy and toys when we take them from the school, it will be easier to control them. All of the parents is rich there. I sent you want they pay (for) each child, bro. We need it…”
The criminal complaint filed said this was part of a text message exchange between Shields and an HSI source, a convicted burglar and drug dealer who has helped the government on previous investigations this year.
Shields made his first appearance in Chicago federal court before U.S. District Judge David Weisman on Monday, represented by federal public defender Johanathan D. Brooks. Shields, from the central Illinois city of Danville, waived his right to a detention hearing for the moment and remains in U.S. Marshals custody.
‘Imma get me a little boy’
The HSI source told special agents on Nov. 11 that Shields wanted to meet up with the source’s good friend, who would also help the government with this case. Both were doing so for “cooperation credit” for the friend, awaiting sentencing after being convicted in a U.S. Southern District of Florida federal court on two counts of “travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.”
The federal agency source told the special agents about the text messages from Shields outlining the plan to kidnap and and ransom a small child from a Fort Lauderdale private school. In text messages to the source, Shields explained his plan and, to demonstrate the parental affluence at the school, showed the tuition charged.
The next day, the agency source drove the friend to a meeting with Shields in a car packed with recording devices. The criminal complaint says the devices picked up Shields telling the friend, “Imma get me a little boy,” asking for the $1,000 from the friend to fund the plan and saying he’d ask for a $100,000 ransom. Shields figured the whole thing could take three or four days.
That night, the source drove Shields to a Target, where Shields bought the Lankybox plushie toy, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure. Though the complaint says Shields paid cash, removing one level of tracking, it also says the federal agency source photographed the receipt and turned it over to Homeland Security agents.
Over the next three days, the source drove Shields to get zip ties at a Chicago AutoZone and a BB gun at a Cabela’s in Hammond, Indiana, a city in the Chicagoland suburbs.
Saturday, the complaint says, a recorded conversation with the source caught Shields saying he’d made hotel and rental car reservations for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.
“Shields stated, ‘As soon as I touch down I’m getting to it’ and continued to say, ‘I’m trying to make sure I hear that over the TV before nighttime,’ the complaint said. “Shields stated that he was going to take the kid back to the hotel.”
Post-ransom payment, Shields planned to drive straight back to Illinois, a 22-hour trip if you average 60 miles per hour.
“Shields stated that ‘If it get too hot, basically ‘I’mma get an Amtrak’ and that ‘If I can’t drive, get dropped off at the Amtrak, get my ticket and I’m gone,’ the complaint said. When the agency source asked why he was needed, Shields said, “To get me the money.”
Shields and the source were at Chicago’s Union Station Saturday evening to board a train that would get them to Miami on Monday when they were taken into custody. The complaint said Shields waived his right to remain silent and claimed he got into the Chicagoland area on Wednesday. His brother-in-law was taking him to Miami, he said, because he’d never been there.
A plan to kidnap a child? He didn’t know about that. The toys and the zip ties came from his brother-in-law, Shields said before admitting he bought them, the complaint says.
The Justice Department says the investigation was the work of Amtrak, Carpentersville, Illinois, Chicago and Chicago Metropolitan Rail police; Homeland Security Investigations-Fort Lauderdale office; and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations department.
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