The suspects accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment in a bid to access his cryptocurrency password were granted bail by a Manhattan judge Wednesday.
After hearing arguments from their lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney, state Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro said he would release William Duplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37, of Kentucky, to home confinement on million-dollar bonds and strict conditions. If they make bail, Duplessie will stay with his father in Florida, and Woeltz will find somewhere in Manhattan, their attorneys said.
“If you think the bondsman is gonna take crypto,” Carro said, “that might be a problem.”
Duplessie and Woeltz stand accused of carrying out a fantastical torture plot inside a $24 million townhouse on Prince and Mulberry Sts. over three weeks in May, subjecting Italian crypto trader Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan to waterboarding, beatings while his wrists were tied, shocks with electric wire, pistol-whipping and other depravity. Prosecutors on Wednesday also said the victim had been urinated on and lit on fire.
Duplessie and Woeltz have pleaded not guilty to assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and possession of a firearm and could face anywhere from 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
At the hearing, Woeltz’s lawyer, Wayne Gosnell, said his client and Duplessie were guilty of nothing more than engaging in “frat house” behavior and said they hadn’t inflicted torture but hazing rituals that play out on college campuses. Sanford Talkin, an attorney for Duplessie, said footage taken inside the townhouse would show Carturan enjoying himself during all-night benders and orgies.
Asking Carro to keep the duo detained pretrial, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Khan on Wednesday revealed prosecutors had recovered a manifesto outlining their plans “to steal foreigners’ crypto.”
Khan described the writings as laying out ways to employ “intermittent violence to keep the victim unregulated.”
Authorities discovered the disturbing scene after a bleeding and barefoot Carturan escaped the townhouse and flagged a traffic agent.
Duplessie and Woeltz are due back in court on Oct. 15.
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