Police: Students Used Cookies to Torture

Tue Nov 6, 2007 3:07 PM EST

us-news, torture, cookie, southern-illinois-university

EDWARDSVILLE — Two students at Southern Illinois University in this St. Louis suburb kidnapped, paddled and burned a young man with freshly baked cookies after a drug deal went bad, prosecutors said.

Madison County prosecutors on Monday charged Rosario James, 23, and Jordan Sallis, 20, each with two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of robbery and aggravated battery.

Both were jailed Tuesday on $150,000 apiece.

Sheriff's Capt. Brad Wells said that Friday night, three men went to James' house to buy marijuana, but two of them grabbed the drugs and fled, leaving the third behind. The suspects held that man, who is in his late teens, and told him he needed to find $400 for the drugs, Wells said.

The suspects beat the man with a wooden paddle, burned his neck and shoulders with cookies immediately after taking them from the oven, shaved off some of his hair and poured urine over him from a soda bottle, Wells said.

"It was just sheer torture," Wells said.

Hours later, Wells said, the victim managed to escape and call police after the suspects drove him to a house in trying to get money for the drugs.

The victim sustained severe bruising but was not hospitalized.

Both suspects were arrested Saturday morning.

There was no evidence that James or Sallis had been using drugs before or during the alleged torture, Wells said Tuesday.

"Basically they ripped them off of their drugs, and they took exception to that," Wells said.

There was no record that James or Sallis had obtained an attorney as of Tuesday, a Madison County court clerk said.

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