Four seventeen-year-olds face aggravated kidnapping charges in Travis County after they allegedly lured a former high school classmate to a garage, held a gun to his head, bound him with duct tape, and beat him with aluminum bats, all because he had talked to one of their girlfriends.

Jose Rojas-Alvarado, Oscar Armando Santiago-Martinez, Angel Lemus-Perez, and Carlos Roberto Oliva-Villeda were each charged with aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, the New York Post reported, citing arrest affidavits from the Travis County Sheriff's Office obtained by KEYE. Court records show Lemus-Perez faces an additional charge of engaging in organized criminal activity. If found guilty, the four teenagers face sentences ranging from five to 99 years in prison.

The attack, which took place in February near Del Valle High School, roughly 15 miles from downtown Austin, has rattled students and families in the surrounding community. And the details in the affidavits suggest this was no impulsive act. Some of the suspects allegedly admitted to police they had been plotting the assault for days. One allegedly recorded the entire ordeal on a phone.

How the alleged kidnapping unfolded

On February 19, the victim left Del Valle High School with three of the suspects. He was allegedly lured to a nearby farm, where a fourth suspect was already waiting inside a garage.

Once inside, the suspects allegedly held a gun to the victim's head and bound his hands, feet, and mouth with duct tape. They then forced him to drink alcohol and beat him with aluminum bats, a walking cane, and a belt. During the assault, CBS Austin reported, the suspects allegedly told the victim they were going to kill him and threatened to harm him and his family if he went to the police.

The motive, as the victim later told authorities, was straightforward: he had been talking to one of the suspects' girlfriends. That was enough, apparently, to justify a planned abduction and prolonged beating at the hands of four armed teenagers.

After the suspects released him, the victim went straight to authorities. Investigators with the Travis County Sheriff's Office said his injuries, described as heavy bruising, were consistent with his account of the attack.

Kidnapping cases involving young people have drawn increased attention across the country. In Arizona, a Pima County deputy was recently charged with kidnapping a woman he was transporting to jail, a reminder that abduction charges can surface in a range of disturbing circumstances.

Community reaction: 'Everyone's pretty spooked'

The Del Valle Independent School District confirmed the suspects are not currently enrolled in the district. In a statement, the district said it is "aware of the reports of an off-campus incident that resulted in the arrests of former DVISD students."

The district added that "the incident is being actively investigated by the Travis County Sheriff's Office" and that it "does not have further information at this time." Officials also said, "The safety of our students and staff is our top priority, and we will continue to monitor this incident."

That boilerplate language does little to calm the nerves of students who walk the same hallways these suspects once did. J'Kaideon Mitchell, a student, told KEYE the news had shaken the school.

"I thought it was insane, especially at our school. It's just crazy how strong that person would have to be to report it and just stay alive, honestly."

Mitchell also described the broader mood among peers.

"Everyone's pretty spooked... Everyone's been like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.'"

That fear is earned. When four teenagers can allegedly plan a kidnapping for days, carry it out with a firearm and duct tape, record the assault, and threaten to kill the victim and his family, all over a high school relationship, the community has every reason to ask hard questions about what went wrong and what comes next.

Premeditation and the organized crime charge

The affidavit details paint a picture of deliberate planning, not a spontaneous fight that spiraled. Multiple suspects allegedly told police they had been plotting the attack for days before February 19. The fact that one suspect was already positioned in the garage when the victim arrived, while three others escorted him from school, suggests coordination.

And then there is the phone recording. One suspect allegedly filmed the entire assault. Whether that recording was meant as a trophy, a threat, or something else, it represents a staggering level of recklessness, or confidence that there would be no consequences.

The additional organized criminal activity charge against Lemus-Perez signals that prosecutors may view this as more than a group assault. In Texas, that charge typically applies when criminal conduct is carried out in concert with others as part of a coordinated scheme. It carries its own serious penalties.

Cases involving young suspects and violent premeditation raise broader questions about accountability in the juvenile justice system. Separately, a convicted child predator in California was arrested on a new warrant just hours before his scheduled release under a lenient parole law, another case where the system nearly failed to hold a dangerous individual accountable.

What remains unanswered

The victim's name has not been publicly released. The exact location of the farm and garage has not been disclosed. It is unclear which suspect allegedly recorded the attack, or whether all four admitted involvement to police or only some of them.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office investigation remains active. No trial dates have been reported. The case numbers and the court handling the charges have not been identified in available reporting.

What is clear is that the victim, after enduring a planned, armed abduction and a prolonged beating, had the courage to go directly to law enforcement. His injuries corroborated his account. The suspects now face charges that could put them in prison for the rest of their lives.

Kidnapping investigations often unfold in unpredictable ways, as seen in the long-running search for Nancy Guthrie in Arizona, where initial leads proved misleading and the case stretched on for months.

The real question for Del Valle

Del Valle is a working-class community southeast of Austin. Families there send their kids to school expecting them to come home safe. They do not expect their children to be lured off campus by former classmates, driven to a farm, and beaten with bats while bound and gagged.

The school district's statement, measured, cautious, heavy on "monitoring", is the kind of institutional response that satisfies lawyers but not parents. The suspects are former students. The victim was a current one. The abduction allegedly began on school grounds when the victim left with three of the suspects on February 19.

That timeline raises a question the district's statement does not address: what protocols exist to prevent former students, especially those who may pose a threat, from accessing current students on or near campus? The district says safety is its "top priority." The facts suggest otherwise.

In other high-profile disappearance cases, surveillance footage has proved critical in piecing together what happened. Whether any security cameras captured the victim leaving campus with the suspects on February 19 has not been reported.

The sentencing range, five to 99 years, is wide. The facts alleged in these affidavits, if proven, sit at the extreme end of that spectrum: premeditated, armed, recorded, and accompanied by death threats. Prosecutors will have to decide whether to seek certification to try these seventeen-year-olds as adults.

Four teenagers allegedly spent days planning to kidnap and brutalize a classmate over a girl. They brought a gun, duct tape, and bats. They recorded it. And they told the victim they would kill him if he talked. He talked anyway. Now the justice system owes him, and every family in Del Valle, a response that matches the severity of what he endured.