Beauty queen kidnaps and tortures ex-boyfriend

The Daily Telegraph, January 03, 2008

A BEAUTY queen and law student has been arrested in a horrifying tale of armed robbery and torture.

Miss Arizona contestant Kumari Fulbright, 27, has been charged with multiple offences over the kidnap and torture of an ex-boyfriend.

She also allegedly bit him during his ordeal, in which he was tied up and threatened over a ten-hour period in two different houses in Arizona, USA.

Meanwhile two brothers who allegedly helped her in the deed are fugitives from justice.

Arrest warrants

Authorities have an arrest warrant for Micheal and Robert Ergonis, 44 and 46 respectively, who are believed to have fled Arizona for Colombia.

Fulbright has been charged with including armed robbery, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The three are accused of attacking her former lover on December 8.

Police told America's ABC News that Fulbright asked a former boyfriend to come to her Tucson apartment.

Beauty queen had shower, then the guns came out

Fulbright said she was going to take a shower, when the Ergonis brothers entered the residence armed with handguns.

Robert Ergonis was identified by police as another former boyfriend of Fulbright's.

"With guns, they tell him get down on the floor," Sgt Fabian Pacheco said. "They begin to accuse this victim of stealing some jewellery, according to Fulbright. She comes out of the shower and she begins to participate in this whole incident."

The Ergonis brothers drove the victim to another home in Tucson, where a third man, 40-year-old Larry Bruce Hammond, allegedly became involved.

Hammond has since been arrested and charged.

'Victim thought he'd die'

"There were some tools. The victim sees these tools and he thinks they're going to use them on him," Pacheco said. "He honestly thinks he is going to get killed."

The victim told investigators the three men involved then left the apartment, Pacheco said, instructing Fulbright to "watch" the victim with a handgun.

Gun went off

By this point, the victim had freed one of his hands and when she approached, he managed to grab the gun from her hand. The weapon reportedly discharged.

"They began to fight over the gun and the victim managed to get out of this apartment," Pacheco said, adding that a neighbor called police after hearing screams as the man ran from the house.

Fugitives

"They're still on the run," Pacheco said of the brothers. "We have reason to believe they have international ties."

Fulbright, who was released on $50,000 bail, had reportedly served as a law clerk for US District Judge Raner Collins while she attended the University of Arizona's law school.

She is listed as a member of the editorial board of the campus law journal, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Calendar girl

Fulbright will appear in a 2008 calendar for Subguns.com that features women in bikinis brandishing firearms.

Fulbright is Miss May, according to Jeff Hawley, a founder of Title2Media, the company that produced the calendar for Subguns. In her photograph, Fulbright is pictured carrying an HK 51 machine gun.

"We were really shocked to see the story," Hawley told ABC News. "She was a very nice individual; she had modeled professionally."

Bitten several times; butcher knife in ear

Prosecutors in Pima County, Arizona, cite Fulbright in the indictment documents. "(Fulbright) specifically bit him several times while he was bound, stuck a butcher knife in his ear said she was going to kill him (and) pointed a pistol at him."

The documents, which were obtained by the Arizona Daily Star, accuse Fulbright and the three men of taking the victim's wallet, cell phone, briefcase and hundreds of dollars in cash.

At one of the two houses, according to search warrant documents filed in court, police recovered a spent bullet, as well as .45-caliber ammunition, plastic gloves, marijuana and the victim's wallet and briefcase. At the other house, authorities recovered duct tape.

It said the alleged assailants held a 24-year-old man captive for 10 hours on Dec. 8 while robbing and torturing him.

Court documents said the foursome tied the man up with plastic cable ties and duct tape, holding him at two Tucson homes, during which time they pointed handguns at him, threatened his life, stole his cell phone, briefcase and wallet, taking between $500 and $600.

The newspaper also said the documents accused Fulbright of biting him several times, sticking a butcher knife in his ear, saying she was going to kill him and pointing a pistol at him.

The Star said after eight to 10 hours, the victim grabbed Fulbright's gun, which went off, and he fled the house screaming for help.

The man's injuries were consistent with his story, police told the newspaper.