Man Kidnaped, Beaten; Associate Arrested

A Newhall man was abducted, beaten and threatened with death by an angry business partner, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Friday.

Ernest B. Marshall, 52, was rescued and his alleged attacker, Kenneth R. Spitz, 28, was arrested after a witness alerted authorities to the kidnaping Thursday night, Lt. Harvey Cantor said.

Marshall was treated for a broken nose, broken ribs, and multiple cuts and scrapes at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and released, Cantor said. Spitz, of Los Angeles, was being held at the Santa Clarita sheriff’s station in lieu of $100,000 bail on suspicion of kidnaping and assault with intent to commit great bodily injury.

Spitz allegedly forced Marshall’s pickup truck to the side of the road at Oak Avenue at Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country, deputies said. Deputies said he then drove Marshall to a reservoir in an isolated area where he beat him, threatening to dislocate his shoulder and throw him into the water to drown.

Deputies said it was not clear why Spitz changed his mind, but he instead drove Marshall to the site of Marshall’s recently closed business in Canyon Country, Seletar Car Restorations on Oak Avenue, where Spitz was arrested by waiting sheriff’s deputies.

The men were partners in a venture to restore and sell an older-model Jaguar, and Spitz claims Marshall owed him $8,000 of the $21,000 he got for it from a Belgian client, Cantor said.