Broward Man Pleads Guilty After Kidnapping, Torturing Plastic Surgeon

Just before 4 a.m. on January 15, a Miami-Dade man woke up in his car outside of a strip club with bruises on his face, his extremities bound, and his hands gruesomely burned.

Police found him after receiving reports of an incessant honking car horn in the parking lot of Cheetah Gentlemen's Club in Broward County. The man told officers he had gone shopping at a Walmart the previous evening, and when he returned to his car, an armed man forced him into a waiting rental van, blindfolded him, and tied his hands and feet.

What followed was a night of terror and torture. The man's two captors repeatedly used a Taser on him. They drove the man, a plastic surgeon in Broward, for an hour before making a stop at a storage facility in Margate. There, they tied him to a rolling chair, took off the blindfold, and, amid a display of sharp weapons and guns, threatened to kill him if he didn't give them money.

In federal court in Miami on Thursday, one of the men arrested for the crime, Justin Boccio, 33, of Deerfield Beach, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping charges. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

A second man, Serge Nkorina, also faces conspiracy and kidnapping charges in the case. He was arrested in Spain and has not yet made his appearance in court in Miami.

During the kidnapping, prosecutors say, the victim promised his captors whatever they wanted. He gave them his home address, the gate entry code, and the alarm code. He told them where they could find $50,000 inside his home. The two men repeatedly beat him and burned his hands with a blowtorch anyway. And when they were done, they forced alcohol down his throat until he passed out.

Court records show Boccio and Nkorina plotted the attack weeks in advance. They purchased supplies at a hardware store last December 30 and rented the van January 5. Hours before the kidnapping, one of the men even visited the surgeon's office.

A press release from the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida says Boccio and Nkorina, "along with others," plotted the kidnapping and torture. It is unclear who the others are and whether anyone else will face charges.

Boccio's sentencing is scheduled for December 5.