Alyssa Maria Cappon had what a probation officer described as a “very good childhood” before she was involved in the kidnapping and torturing of two people in separate incidents in Langley and Maple Ridge.
Details were related by Provincial Court Judge Alexander Wolf during a May 23 sentencing hearing at the Surrey courthouse, which were recently published online.
Following a preliminary hearing, the 27-year-old Cappon pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful confinement, one charge for the March 2016 incident in Langley where a man was held captive for one day and a second charge for the June 2016 incident in Maple Ridge where another man was held for three days.
The Crown prosecutor told the court that on March 27, 2016 “at or near” Langley, Cappon and two masked individuals entered the home of the victim.
He was assaulted with weapons, taken out of his house and placed in the trunk of his own car, a blue Cavalier.
The man was driven to another house, where he was bound with duct tape and kept in the cellar overnight.
“At some point in time while being kept captive at that house, he believes a firearm was placed in his mouth,” Judge Wolf noted.
“While it is uncertain as to who might have placed such an item in the (vicitm’s) mouth, it appears quite clear that the accused (Cappon) was ‘the main player’.”
Cappon wanted money, which the abducted man didn’t have, so she forced him to sign over the ownership papers for his car.
He was then placed in the trunk of the car and Cappon drove to an insurance agent to make sure the transfer of ownership for the vehicle took place.
While man was confined in the trunk of his own vehicle, he managed to write notes on some paper towels and push them through an opening in the trunk.
“Call police held captive in Blue Cavalier” one note read.
Then, he was allowed out of the trunk and taken into an auto parts store by Cappon.
According to her lawyer, Cappon told her captive to ‘get lost for a few minutes,’ and that is when he had someone call police.
The victim suffered scrapes, a black eye, and parts of his eyebrow were missing as a result of duct tape being ripped off his face.
Three months later, while she was free on bail, Cappon and two associates kidnapped another man.
The ordeal lasted three days.
The captive suffered punches and kicks to the body and multiple cuts and jabs with knives.
One accomplice used a sledgehammer on the man’s knee and ankle and inflicted a stab wound in the shoulder.
Later, the man was stabbed in the leg and pliers were applied to his nose and fingernail.
One the third day, Cappon and her accomplices decided to have the victim open a Visa debit account at a Pitt Meadows bank.
The trio waited outside in the car while the victim went inside, which is when he asked the teller to call the police.
Evidence showed the man suffered multiple injuries, including cuts and bruises to his right and left leg, a sledge hammer injury to his left knee, facial injuries including cuts to his nose, a black left eye, a cut above his right eye and what was described as a “fingernail injury from pliers.”
At trial, the Crown prosecutor called the crimes “almost barbaric in the level of violence used.”
The judge agreed.
While Cappon is “truly remorseful” about her crimes and has worked hard to rehabilitate herself since her second arrest, Judge Wolf said the accused crossed a line.
“Most people know where that line is,” the judge said.
“Ms. Cappon chose to cross it. It was her decision to quit her job, start drinking and abuse drugs. By any sense of moral decency, whether affected by a drug dependency or not, we don’t take people from their beds and lock them in the trunk of a car or stab people in the leg with a knife.”
A probation officer’s report said Cappon comes from a stable home environment, with parents who have been married for 30 years. All in all, the writer said, Cappon had a “very good childhood.”
The judge also said he did not want “to impose such a crushing sentence that would destroy the possibility of Ms. Cappon continuing on with her rehabilitative efforts.”
He imposed a sentence of five years, less 33 days for time already spent in custody.
