A Langley drug dealer will spend five years behind bars after she kidnapped and tortured two people over drug debts.
Alyssa Maria Cappon entered a guilty plea to two counts of unlawful confinement in May for two incidents that took place in the spring of 2016.
Judge Alexander Wolf brushed aside the recommendation by Cappon’s defence lawyer that she serve only 90 days in jail for the crimes, imposing a sentence of five years, and noting that he had considered as long as nine years.
The two incidents were apparently attempts to get money out of people to whom Cappon had sold drugs.
On March 27, she and two masked men entered the Langley home of the first victim, assaulted him, and locked him in the truck of his own car, a blue Cavalier.
He was taken to a basement and kept there overnight, bound with duct tape.
The next day, they took the victim to a Canadian Tire and Cappon told him to “get lost for a few minutes.” The victim had someone call the police.
When officers arrived, they found Cappon “waiting to buy a large pack of zap straps, a large lock, a roll of tape and some child proof locks,” according to the judge’s sentencing.
Cappon was released on bail, and that June 2 she and some different associates kidnapped another man.
This time, they offered their victim a ride back to his home in Surrey, but along the way stopped at Cappon’s home on Old Yale Road in rural Langley.
They took the victim inside a knifepoint, duct taped his arms and legs together, and took his money, wallet, phone, drugs, and keys.
The victim was kept for three days, suffering cuts, a stab to the shoulder with a large knife, a sledgehammer to the knee and ankle, and numerous punches and kicks to the body.
Cappon gave two of her accomplices keys to the victim’s apartment, which they looted of watches, jewelry, and Versace sunglasses.
For a time they left the victim alone, but kept his girlfriend with them. When they returned for him at his apartment, they ordered him to find something to steal to pay back his debt, and also carted off his couches and TV set.
On day two of the kidnapping, Cappon stabbed the victim in the leg with a large knife, and another attacker punched him in the face, used pliers on his nose, and tried to pull off his fingernail with a pair of pliers. They left him sleeping on the bathroom floor.
On the third day, the suspects drove the victim to a Pitt Meadows bank where they wanted him to open a Visa debit account. They let him go in alone, and he asked the teller to call the police. Cappon was arrested late that night at her farmhouse.
Judge Wolf noted that there were features of the kidnappings that were “bizarre.”
“For example, one victim was told essentially to ‘disappear for a few minutes’ while the accused continued with some shopping,” Wolf wrote in his judgment. “Another victim was sent into a bank unescorted.”
Wolf said he agreed that the accused “was not very smart” in her actions but that did not make the crimes less heinous.
“Just because both victims were able to call the police due to the incompetence of the accused, does not lessen her moral blameworthiness,” Wolf wrote.
He noted again the lack of moral decency on display.
“There is a line,” Wolf wrote. “Most people know where that line is. Ms. Cappon chose to cross it. It was her decision to quit her job, start drinking and abuse drugs. This is not simply a ‘learning opportunity’ or a momentary lapse of judgment. Her behavior may have been fueled by the consumption of illicit substances, but it was not a ‘demonic possession’ that made her commit these acts of violence.”
Cappon’s sentence was not longer largely because she has been clean and sober since the second arrest, and because she has displayed remorse and has the support of her family, Wolf wrote.
