Natrone D. Bostick, 19, left, and Samath Hem, 23, enter a Lewis County Superior Court room at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis in early May.
Samath Hem, 23, left, and Natrone D. Bostick, 19, make separate appearances in Lewis County Superior Court on Friday afternoon at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis.
A planned meet-up with an escort went terribly wrong for a Chehalis man last month when he was tied up, beaten and robbed at gunpoint by the woman’s two male companions, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Natrone D. Bostick, 19, of Lakewood, and Samath Laraa Hem, 23, of Tacoma, were charged Friday in Lewis County Superior Court with first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault. Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey ordered each held on $100,000 bail.
“The facts set forth in the probable cause statement disclose basically a home-invasion robbery,” Brosey said Friday during Hem’s first appearance on the charges. “Not because he lives in Tacoma, but because of the serious nature of the charges, $100,000 bond.”
On April 30, a 53-year-old Chehalis man reported that he contacted a female escort through backpage.com, and made arrangements for her to meet him at his residence the day before.
The alleged victim reported to the Sheriff’s Office that at 4:30 p.m. on April 29, the woman arrived with two men, who reportedly punched and pistol whipped him, then tied him up at his wrists and ankles and continued to hold him at gunpoint in a bedroom while ransacking his house and stealing property.
The three alleged robbers stole 46- and 55-inch televisions, a phone, binoculars, a laptop, a wallet, checkbook, cellphone and oxycodone pills, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The victim was able to untie himself after the men and woman left, according to court documents.
On Tuesday, police arrested Bostick and two other people — Samath Hem, 23, and Alicia Chester, 21, in relation to a reported theft. All three were charged with organized retail theft in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday. Bostick and Hem were also charged with drug possession.
According to court documents, a checkbook belonging to the victim in the home-invasion robbery was found in Bostick’s car after his arrest on Tuesday.
Detectives contacted Bostick and Hem in the Lewis County Jail on Wednesday. Bostick allegedly became irritated during an interrogation, but Hem told police he drove Bostick and a woman to Lewis County, and planned to rob the victim, according to court documents.
The victim reportedly identified Bostick out of a photo montage as his attacker. The Prosecutor’s Office asked Brosey on Thursday to hold Bostick for an additional day on $100,000 bail as they contemplated the appropriate charges.
That day, investigators served two search warrants related to the case and found additional property reportedly stolen during the robbery, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Hem was added to the court’s schedule as Bostick’s co-defendant on Friday.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello told The Chronicle his office also plans to charge the woman involved in the robbery. He said that suspect is not the same woman arrested with Bostick and Hem on the theft charges this week.
The case is still under investigation.
The maximum sentences for the Class A felony charges is life in prison. Both men received court-appointed counsel. Bostick and Hem are scheduled to make their next appearances in Superior Court on Thursday.
