Guilty plea in torture, kidnap

ALBANY -- A second woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in the horrific kidnapping and torture of a city woman in May.

Sharon "Shay" Staples, 21, of Troy, is the second woman, along with Daniella Gay, to plead guilty to traveling to Albany and abducting a woman from her Albany home because the victim's brother stole a safe belonging to a co-defendant, according to District Attorney P. David Soares.

The two who plead and five co-defendants took the victim to an apartment in Troy where two of them evidently put the victim in a bathroom, put on rubber gloves and savagely assaulted her in an effort to compel her brother to return the safe.

It's alleged that some of the assault was carried out over a speaker phone so the victim's brother could hear the assault. At one point, four of them left to try and get the safe as ransom but were unsuccessful.


After returning to the apartment the gang of seven took the victim to a location in Troy where an exchange was scheduled for the safe. The meeting went bad and the victim's brother fired numerous shots at the car.

After fleeing the scene, the seven allegedly put the victim in the trunk of the car and drove to Schenectady. After waking up at around 8 a.m., she could hear snoring from the front of the car and noticed the car was not moving.

She popped the trunk from inside and ran from the car. One of the defendants, alerted by a dash light, began chasing the victim on foot through the streets of Schenectady. A passerby stopped, let the victim in her car and took her to the hospital.

Staples pled guilty to felony attempted kidnapping and will spend between three and a half and six years in prison when sentenced on Dec. 9. In August, Gay pled guilty to the same charge and will be sentenced later this month.

The cases against the others -- Thomas White, Alyssa Spiak, Thomas Lewis, Michael Quiles, and Chelsey Clements are still ongoing. They each face an indeterminate sentence of up to life in prison if convicted.

Major Offense Bureau Chief Bruce Lennard is handling the prosecution of the case.