SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND — Sentencing for a Silver Spring man involved in the December kidnapping of a Clinton bank manager and her family has been postponed until Dec. 4.
Yosef Tadele, 23, a native of Ethiopia, who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the kidnapping, was scheduled to face sentencing Friday in Prince George’s County Circuit Judge Sheila R. Tillerson Adams’ courtroom. However, he was in Montgomery County at the time regarding a traffic matter, according to his attorney, Brian K. McDaniel, of Washington, D.C.
Tadele was implicated in the kidnapping of LaChrista Hamilton, a manager with SunTrust Bank, and her husband and their two sons. Two other men, Yohannes T. Surafel, 25, of Washington, D.C., and Beruk Ayalneh, 24, whose last known address is in Arlington, Va., according to court records, are also facing charges for their involvement in the kidnapping.
According to testimony at a January 2009 hearing, Surafel and Ayalneh allegedly held the family at gunpoint in their Briarcliff Drive home the evening of Dec. 26. The men allegedly planned to take the family the next day to the Silver Spring branch where Hamilton worked to assist with an armed robbery.
Surafel drove with the family to the bank Dec. 27, during which time the car was stopped and he was seized by police.
Tadele has been accused of driving Surafel and Ayalneh to Hamilton’s home on Dec. 26 and picking up Ayalneh the following the day with the intention of meeting up with Surafel later.
Surafel is facing charges of kidnapping, assault, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit a robbery and several other charges associated with his possession of a handgun. His attorney, Richard Finci of Greenbelt, testified at an earlier hearing that Surafel suffered emotional trauma as a Virginia Tech student on campus during the April 2007 massacre in which 32 people died.
Surafel’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 27. Ayalneh’s whereabouts are unknown.
Assistant State’s Attorney Carol Coderre, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Friday.