Charges have been filed against a fifth person in relation to a January incident in which several people were reportedly held hostage in a hotel room over missing drugs and money.
Joshua S. Tisdale, 25, was charged on Monday with felony kidnapping, robbery, burglary, assault and vehicle theft, as well misdemeanor theft, related to his alleged involvement in the Jan. 30 confrontation at the Duck Inn in Soldotna.
Rachelle B. Brown, 27, Robert C. Dedrick, 31, Clinton D. Starnes, 28, and Rudy Bongolan, 44, were charged with multiple felony counts in February related to the altercation.
The incident, which was reportedly over a safe Brown said was stolen from her home the day before, ended with two people holed up in the hotel room bathroom and another fleeing to a gas station, according to court documents.
Brown reportedly told State Troopers that the safe contained between $500 and $1,000 and between 1 and 6 grams of heroin. After she noticed the safe was missing, Brown told troopers, she called Dedrick, who said he would contact a friend to hunt down the people Brown believed had stolen from her, according to a trooper affidavit.
On Jan. 30, Bongolan and Starnes allegedly confronted the suspected culprits at knifepoint and ransacked their room at the Duck Inn.
Tisdale, who told troopers that he accompanied Bongolan and Starnes to the Duck Inn on Jan. 30 to buy drugs, reportedly said the two men “bullrushed” the room. Tisdale told troopers he then left the room and headed back to the parking lot. Starnes later gave Tisdale the keys to a car belonging to one of the alleged victims and told him to leave, according to the trooper affidavit. Tisdale told troopers that he ditched the car in a gravel pit, according to a trooper affidavit.
The vehicle was recovered in Anchorage in February.
Tisdale faces one count of kidnapping, an unclassified felony; one count of first-degree armed robbery, a class A felony; one count of first-degree burglary, a class B felony; one count of third-degree assault, a class C felony; one count of first-degree vehicle theft, a class C felony; and fourth-degree theft, a class B misdemeanor.
Reach Erin Thompson at ethompson@peninsulaclarion.com.
