Last Arrest Made in Torture of Chula Vista Man

One of San Diego’s Top 10 fugitives, accused of kidnaping and torturing a Chula Vista man and burning him in an oven, was arrested Wednesday in North Park.

Charles Robert Smith, 23, was apprehended by police at noon as he tried to escape out the back of his father’s home in the 4500 block of Alabama Street, said San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson.

Smith, the final suspect to be arrested in the case, and three other men are accused of kidnaping Todd Hall, 23, because they believed he stole a friend’s car in 1990 and was selling the parts.

The bizarre night of torture began April 16, when, police say, Smith and his three friends abducted Hall from his Chula Vista home. They bound his hands and feet with duct tape and taped a towel over his face, Chula Vista Police Detective John Heggesteun said.

Hall was allegedly taken to a barbecue restaurant in Clairemont owned by Smith’s father. Over the next several hours, police say, Hall was beaten and burned with cigarettes, then stripped and placed into a large oven. He was alternately burned in the oven and placed in a freezer, police say.

Early the next morning, he was driven to National City and taped to a tree in front of a car wash. After Hall’s kidnapers left with his car, he escaped and notified authorities. Hall suffered second-degree burns on his back as well as bruises and cuts, Heggesteun said.

Robert Ring, 23; Paul Chronkite, 20, and Michael Ottinger, 23, were arrested earlier in the year and convicted on charges relating to the kidnaping. Sentencing of the three men is pending, Heggesteun said.

Smith is being held in County Jail on $75,000 bail on suspicion of kidnaping and assault.