HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A Tennessee man who kidnapped a Hot Springs teen in April 2022 was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in a Hot Springs federal court.
Samuel Bolling pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping in November 2022, claiming drug addiction, PTSD from military service and steroid use drove him to devise a plan to kidnap someone from Hot Springs for ransom.
Bolling, along with Dayla Ferrer of Tennessee, abducted a 17-year-old on April 18, 2022, and were arrested after an Amber alert was sent out the next day.
In October 2022, Ferrer pleaded guilty to kidnapping, but the conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge was dropped.
According to court documents, the two reportedly agreed to kidnap the teen to "extort money from the family."
On the night of the kidnapping, Ferrer approached the victim in downtown Hot Springs and asked to use her phone.
The victim entered Ferrer's car where she was "attacked and restrained" by Bolling. She was hit with a flashlight and a hood was placed over her head.
Bolling then used the victim's phone to threaten a relative that if $10,000 were not given to them, she would be "sold to human sex traffickers or cut up into little pieces and disposed of in a lake."
Ferrer, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday, said they kept the victim in a bedroom and that, at some point, Bolling sexually assaulted her.
During the sentencing hearing, she took emotional responsibility while claiming also to be a victim of Bolling.
The Tennessee woman said she was vulnerable and depressed over the death of a family member and the abandonment of her father when Bolling stepped into the picture.
A day after the kidnapping, Ferrer left the condo to go to Shoe Carnival and Walmart when she returned to learn Bolling sexually assaulted the victim.
That's when Ferrer began to insist Bolling let the victim go.
U.S. attorneys said Ferrer's failure to get help while at the stores was a significant reason not to mitigate the sentence. However, they did agree to go below the mandatory 20-year minimum in return for the guilty plea and clean record.
The judge who handed down Ferrer's sentence said the punishment needed to deter her from ever committing a crime again.
"You are young and naive, but the victim is also young and naive," the judge said. "While you may have been manipulated, it does not diminish the harm, and [your victim] has to live with this for the rest of her life because of what you and Samuel Bolling did to her."
Bolling is expected to be in the federal prison in Texarkana, while Ferrer is likely heading to a prison in Aliceville, Ala, where she will receive five years of supervised parole after her sentence.