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Monday, August 15, 2011

Sussex Co., NJ - Conspiracy to commit murder charges added to kidnap case

OFF THE WIRE
BY: STEVEN REILLY
Source: njherald.com

Three defendants in the mistaken-identity kidnapping of a Newton businessman will be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, the Sussex County Prosecutor's office announced Thursday.

"As a result of our ongoing investigation we have gathered evidence that these defendants planned not just to kidnap their victim, but to kill him," First Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller said.

A Sussex County grand jury handed up a superseding indictment that charges William Barger, Lonnie Swarnes and Douglas Strangeland with first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, in addition to the 19 charges that were handed up in the original indictment, including kidnapping, robbery and weapons charges.

"The superseding indictment names all three Missouri men, meaning they would be tried together," Mueller said.

Swarnes and Strangeland are charged with kidnapping Frankford resident Jeffrey Muller, 59, as he prepared to open his pet supply store on Jan. 8, 2010. Barger is accused of recruiting the men to kidnap a New York money manager with the same name.

Barger, 48, of Nevada, Mo., pleaded not guilty in April to masterminding a plan that led to the three men allegedly kidnapping Muller from his Newton pet supply store and driving him to central Missouri, where Muller escaped after the car they were in broke down.

The men mistook Muller for a New York-based money broker with the same name who was blamed for losses in a land deal, authorities said.

Authorities have said Barger recruited three men -- Andrew Wadel, 23, Swarnes, 45, and Stangeland, 47 -- to carry out the kidnapping by telling them he was the president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and would consider them for membership in a new chapter of the club that was being started in the Midwest.

Swarnes and Stangeland are being held in the Sussex County Jail, while Barger is lodged in the Morris County Jail. Wadel pleaded guilty in March to kidnapping and was sentenced in July to 18 years in prison.

Roy Slates, of Nevada, Mo., who authorities have said sparked the mistaken kidnapping when he complained to Stangeland at a Missouri bar of losing $500,000 to a New York-based money broker named Jeffrey Muller in a failed business deal, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit theft by extortion. That crime is punishable by up to 10 years, but Slates can reduce that term to five years if he testifies against his alleged cohorts, authorities have said. Slates is in Missouri awaiting further instructions and the resolution of his co-defendants' cases before sentencing.

According to court papers, after Stangeland heard of Slates' losses, he told Barger, who arranged to kidnap "Jeffrey Muller" in exchange for 25 percent of any recouped money.