BRADENTON — The duct tape he used to bind Clay Moore to a tree was not tight enough, so Vincente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno told detectives during an hour-long confession he turned to using the youngster’s shoelaces to confine the teen in the woods.
After securing the boy to a tree, Beltran-Moreno, 24, left the woods in rural Faulkner Farms planning to make a ransom call within the hour to Clay’s parents using a phone number he extracted from his prisoner, jurors heard during trial Tuesday on recordings made by investigators of Beltran-Moreno’s confession.
For more than four hours, jurors heard Beltran-Moreno’s confession in Spanish to FBI agent Leo Martinez recorded after he surrendered to authorities after crossing from Mexico into the Texas border town of Hidalgo. Beltran-Moreno is on trial on a charge of armed kidnapping. He faces life in prison.
Jurors read English text of the confession as prosecutor Brian Iten played CDs of Beltran-Moreno telling investigators that pressed to pay looming bills, at around 9 a.m. on Feb. 23, 2007, he kidnapped Clay, 13, from his Parrish school bus stop at gunpoint.
Beltran-Moreno told Martinez and Manatee County Sheriff’s Office detectives Dennis Valone and Richard McClain he planned to ask for ransom money from Clay’s parents, but before he could make the call an Amber Alert and media reports of the frantic search for Clay changed his plans.
He told investigators he planned to go back to the woods and release the boy, but not before leaving him bound to the tree until nightfall.
Beltran-Moreno told Martinez when he learned of the Amber Alert on television “he couldn’t do it anymore,” and decided to leave Clay there. Then he learned of Clay’s heralded escape that garnered national attention after the boy cut himself loose with a safety pin he had hidden during his kidnapping. The teen is expected to testify first thing today.
Investigators also heard from Beltran-Moreno that he picked Clay at random and had hatched a scheme to kidnap a child for ransom days before he took action, the jurors heard in the recordings.
Beltran-Moreno told Martinez on the Friday he kidnapped Clay, he had bills due the next day and he snapped.
“I am up against the wall. I gotta do it. I gotta do it,” Beltran-Moreno told Martinez he thought to himself before spotting kids at Clay’s bus stop. “It’s not that complicated. I needed the money.”
Clay’s classmate, Manatee School for the Arts ninth grader Taylor Lesione, said he watched as Beltran-Moreno pulled up to their Kingsfield Estates bus stop in a truck and demanded Clay get in the vehicle. Clay refused until Beltran-Moreno pointed a gun in his direction, Lesions testified.
“He kept saying, ‘No, no. What did I do?’ Until he pulled out a gun, then Clay got in the truck,” Lesione said.
Beltran-Moreno showed no emotion as Lesione pointed to him in the courtroom.
Assistant State Attorney Brian Iten also called the first Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy to locate Clay after he freed himself and called his parents using a cell phone he borrowed from a farmer the teen flagged down on Faulkner.
Sheriff’s Sgt. William Riley said Clay was “dirty, wearing no socks or shoes.” Riley said he also had scratches, but appeared calm.
“I offered him food and water. He was extremely thirsty,” said Riley. “I believe he drank a bottle of water and a soft drink.”
Iten also offered an opening statement to jurors saying he would provide evidence that gloves found in the woods where Clay escaped held Beltran’s Moreno’s DNA, and a handgun Beltran-Moreno led detectives to was recovered in woods nearby.
Beltran-Moreno’s public defender, Matthew Gish, opted not to make an opening statement and rarely cross-examined the state’s witnesses. The witnesses he did cross examine were asked to confirm to jurors that Clay was not seriously injured and that Beltran-Moreno cooperated with authorities by surrendering after fleeing to Mexico.
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