MIAMI – Two Miami men received life sentences — and a judge ordered a third to spend a dozen years locked up — in the kidnapping, torture and executions of two victims in Opa-locka in 2020, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
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James Edward Daniels, 59, and Frederick Eugene Rudolph, 69, received life sentences with five years of supervised release. Meanwhile, Herbert Barr, 56, received a 12-and-a-half-year sentence with five years of supervised release.
The trio were arrested in connection with the deaths of Johan Gonzalez, 26, and Osmar Oliva, 50. Authorities said a third victim “miraculously” survived after being shot in the area of Northwest 18th Avenue and Rutland Street.
Prosecutors said on Dec. 5, 2020, Daniels, Rudolph and Barr kidnapped the three men from a truck yard in Opa-locka.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, they then “bound and tortured the victims, duct-taped their eyes and threw them in the back of a rented van after stealing the victims’ drugs.”
“They drove around the city for hours before taking the victims to an abandoned house in Opa-locka and attempting to execute them by shooting the three victims,” a DOJ news release states. “Daniels stole jewelry from one of the murdered victims, and all defendants benefitted by receiving drugs, money, or both, in exchange for their participation in the conspiracy.”
Daniels, Rudolph and Barr were convicted of various charges including conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, multiple counts of kidnapping resulting in death and kidnapping.
Barr pleaded guilty to kidnapping on Nov. 26, 2024, while Daniels and Rudolph took their cases to trial and lost on Dec. 17, 2024.
The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department, took part in the investigation.