Bail bonds woman, husband accused of kidnapping client

DAYTONA BEACH — A bail bonds woman sent her husband to kidnap one of her clients at gunpoint then she and her spouse bribed the victim and the witnesses to try to keep them quiet, investigators said Tuesday.

The elaborate plan hatched by 22-year-old Lauren Hill and her 25-year-old husband Derease Irons of Daytona Beach included plying kidnapping victim Jacob Buck with money, food and a motel room at the Cozy Villa in Holly Hill so that Buck would not testify against Irons in court, reports state.

Hill and Irons, investigators said, also purchased a plane ticket to Nashville for Buck, 26, and drove him to Daytona Beach International Airport in late July so that he would leave the area.

The couple also offered to buy a plane ticket to Ohio for Buck's friend — another witness to the kidnapping — as well as offered the witness a new scooter and $200 if he would not testify, reports state. Irons and Hill gave the friend's girlfriend cash, as well, investigators said.

Irons, investigators said, even resorted to getting on his knees and begging yet another witness to not testify against him lest he be sent to prison for life. Irons was released from state prison in 2011 after serving a year-and-a-half for battering a pregnant woman, state records show.

The kidnapping episode occurred July 10 about 8 p.m. when Hill called Daytona Beach police to report that she had one of her clients in the backseat of her vehicle in the driveway of her Kennedy Road residence and that the man — Buck — was getting violent. Hill told a sheriff's dispatcher that she needed law enforcement's assistance with Buck.   

When police arrived they found a different scenario, an arrest report states. Buck was in the backseat banging on the windows and screaming, police said.

"It was clear that he was having a panic attack and was in great fear," the officer wrote in the arrest report, referring to Buck.

Minutes before police responded to Hill's residence, Buck also had called 9-1-1 from the backseat of Hill's car after Irons had neglected to notice that Buck had a cellphone in his back pocket, the report states. Buck was so scared though that he was unintelligible as he sobbed into the phone and struggled to tell the dispatcher where he was.

Buck said Tuesday that he used Hill's bail bonds fledgling business — A Fanatics Bail Bonds — to get out of the county jail on a failure to return rental equipment charge. When Buck later noticed that Hill had overcharged him to get him out of custody though, he said he threatened to expose Hill and sue her.

On July 10, an acquaintance of Buck's who knew he was staying with friends on Madison Avenue approached Buck and his friends on their front porch. Buck's acquaintance told him that there was someone in a car who wanted to see him, the report states.

According to the arrest report, Irons was waiting in a car and when Buck arrived, Irons pointed a gun at his head, shoved him inside the back seat and drove him to his and Hill's house on Kennedy Road.

Irons is charged with armed kidnapping, five counts of tampering with a witness and conspiracy. Hill is charged with the same offenses, but not for kidnapping. She is also charged with lying to a law enforcement officer regarding a missing person/felony investigation. Both were being held Tuesday at the county jail, Irons on $30,000 bail, Hill on $110,500 bail.