Two Miami men face life in prison for deadly 2020 kidnapping plot, feds say
.jpg "Two Miami men have been found guilty in federal court in a 2020 kidnapping plot that left two men dead and another seriously injured.")
Two Miami men face life in prison after being found guilty of multiple charges related to a 2020 kidnapping plot that left two people dead and another critically injured, federal authorities say.
On Dec. 5, 2020, James Edward Daniels, 59, and Frederick Eugene Rudolph, 69, and a third conspirator, kidnapped three people from a truck yard in Opa-locka after stealing their drugs, according to a federal indictment. The victims were bound, tortured and driven around in a rented U-Haul van before being taken to an abandoned house, where the kidnappers tried to kill them by shooting them point-blank in the head.
The victims — identified by the Miami Herald at the time as Osmar Oliva, 50, Johan Gonzalez Quesada, 26, and an unnamed man — were brutally beaten, shot and dumped on the 1800 block of Rutland Street. Oliva and Gonzalez Quesada died from their injuries, while the third victim survived.
READ MORE: Cops seek killers who kidnapped, tortured and executed two truckers in Opa-locka
Oliva, a father of three and owner of Oliva Delivery Corp. in Opa-locka, was remembered by his grieving widow as “a very good person,” she told the Herald after his death.
Gonzalez Quesada, a father of two young daughters, including a newborn, was described by his father, Ovidio Gonzalez Roche, as “a marvelous person” with “a huge heart.”
“This is such an extraordinary shock,” his father told the Herald. “I can’t explain what’s happened.”
Court records say that Daniels and Rudolph, along with their accomplice, planned the crime days in advance, meeting to rent cars and coordinate the robbery. Daniels also stole jewelry from one of the murdered victims, and the conspirators profited from the crime through stolen money or drugs, according to the indictment.
Herbert Barr, a third co-conspirator, pleaded guilty to kidnapping in November. Daniels and Rudolph now face life sentences, with sentencing scheduled for May.
The case was investigated by the FBI, DEA and the Miami-Dade Police Department, with U.S. Attorneys Yara Dodin, Nardia Haye and Katie Guthrie leading the prosecution.