ORLANDO, Fla.,None — Jurors heard more testimony Wednesday in the trial of one of three people accused in a violent home invasion and kidnapping, in Winter Garden.
A father, who was held hostage for two days, took the stand.
He said he was convinced he, his wife and son were going to be killed, because they saw their kidnappers' faces.
He said he spent most of the two days tied up with a shirt over his head, but he said the worst part was the Russian roulette.
Reubens Morais said the kidnappers played Russian roulette with him, and his five-year-old autistic son.
Morais speaks Portuguese. An interpreter helped him tell the jury his story.
"When he put the gun in my mouth, it went down to my throat," Morais said in court.
He said he was taped to this armchair all day with a black shirt over his head, constantly hearing that his pregnant wife and his son would be killed if he didn't give the intruders $200,000 from his trucking business.
Morais said that after his wife threatened a female kidnapper with a kitchen knife, he heard them pistol whipping her in another room.
"I heard what sounded like someone hitting somebody, or smacking somebody. I heard that, and Marcela was crying," he said.
Morais said he hugged and consoled his son, and they hit him on the head so hard he blacked out. He said he didn't come to until the police rescued him.
Help came after his wife Marcela jumped backwards out of a second story window and ran to the next door neighbor's house.
Manuel Perez, a Winter Garden Public Works employee, saw defendant Victor Sanchez and another defendant run and jump over the fence.
"Did you go over the fence?" a prosecutor asked Perez.
"I try. I try. I don't know why, but I try. I scratch my knees," said Perez
Sanchez claims he was forced by the others to get involved in the kidnapping. But WFTV has been told that on Thursday, the jury will hear his confession to police.
If Sanchez is convicted, he faces life in prison.