A Pasadena man has been sentenced to more than 16 years for his role in kidnapping a Chinese national whose body was later found buried in the Southern California desert.
Anthony Valladares, 29, was sentenced Friday in connection with the abduction of Ruochen “Tony” Liao of Santa Ana in 2018.
Valladares was described by prosecutors as the “muscle” behind the kidnapping plot. They said he took cash in exchange for intimidating, beating, tasering, and tying up Liao as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by two other Chinese nationals, Guangyao Yang, 28, and Peicheng Shen, 35, both of West Covina.
According to court documents, Shen reportedly met with Liao several times prior to the abduction, purportedly to assist him in collecting a debt from a third party. At one such meeting at a San Gabriel mall in 2018, Shen lured Liao to a van driven by Alexis Ivan Romero, 25, of Azusa. Valladares was hiding inside in the vehicle.
Once Liao was inside the car, and at Shen’s signal, Valladares attacked, using a taser to subdue the victim, then binding him in rope and covering his head with a black hood.
Liao was driven to Rosemead, transferred to a second vehicle, and brought to a home in Corona. There, he was shoved in a closet and blindfolded with tape, with his legs bound and arms tied behind him, according to prosecutors.
A day after the kidnapping, Liao’s father received a ransom demand for $2 million to be deposited into three Chinese bank accounts.
At some point after arriving at the Corona house, Liao died. Cause of death has not been disclosed by prosecutors, though they said Valladares was not present at the time. Shen reportedly had the closet floor recarpeted after Liao’s body was removed, and Yang searched online to ascertain how quickly a corpse decomposes in the ground, according to court documents.
After Liao died, Shen and Yang reportedly drove his body out into the Mojave Desert where it was buried along with other evidence of the crime.
Federal Judge Fernando M. Olguin described the kidnapping scheme as a “horrendous crime,” and ordered Valladares to pay more than $33,000 in restitution.
Valladares pleaded guilty in October of last year to one count of conspiracy to kidnap. Velez pleaded guilty in September 2019 to one count of conspiracy to kidnap and is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 10.
Shen and Yang, who have since left the country, are being held by Chinese law enforcement in connection with the kidnapping.
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