Bail rejected for suspect in North Huntingdon kidnapping

A Westmoreland County judge on Friday rejected a request to set bail for one of three men charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a North Huntingdon teen last month.

Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani said Cameron Diontra Bessent, 22, of West Mifflin is a danger to society and upheld a lower court ruling issued last month to hold him in custody pending a preliminary hearing next month.

“I don’t believe there are any conditions to ensure the community’s safety,” Feliciani said.

Bessent is one of three men charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, unlawful restraint and burglary in connection with the Dec. 11 reported kidnapping of a 17-year-old boy from his grandmother’s home on Barnes Lake Road.

In court on Friday, Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Judi Petrush said police believe Bessent and Karrar Fouad Alhelali, 40, and James Keith Maskil, 28, of Graysville, Greene County, stormed into the home Dec. 10, ordered the teen into the basement and demanded money.

Police learned of the incident when the teen, identified in court papers by the initials R.M., ran out of a wooded area Dec. 11 and jumped into the back of a West Mifflin police car. The teen said he was at his grandmother’s home the previous day when several men — one of whom the teen recognized as Maskil — broke in and ordered R.M. to the basement at gunpoint, pistol-whipping the teen, police said.

Maskil asked the teen where “the package” was and the others searched the basement, according to court papers. A man later identified as Alhelali came in and told the teen to “give us all the money and you have no problems,” police said.

R.M. denied knowledge of a package or money and was driven away in a Hyundai Elantra.

The group briefly stopped at an Irwin gas station, where authorities obtained surveillance video showing the car there. Police used license plate readers to track the car to McKeesport and Duquesne, where the teen told police Maskil demanded $15,000 and the group repeatedly asked about “the package,” according to court papers. The car was registered to Alhelali, police said.

Alhelali was the passenger in that car during a crash the next day in McKeesport. The vehicle was towed to his West Mifflin address, police said. Investigators said they searched the car and the teen identified Alhelali as one of the suspects.

Alhelali told authorities he went to the teen’s home with Maskil, Bessent and one other man to get money and that they took R.M. with them, according to court papers.

Police said the teen escaped Dec. 11 while riding in a car being driven by Maskil in West Mifflin. It was unclear from court papers what time that happened and whether the teen was hurt.

Defense attorney Pat Thomassey argued Bessent, who has no prior criminal record and would live with his mother in West Mifflin, is not a flight risk and should be granted bail.

“This case is strange, and the only thing that places my client there is the co-defendant, who lied,” Thomassey said.

Alhelali and Maskil also are being held without bail.

Bessent is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Feb. 9 before North Huntingdon District Judge Wayne Gongaware.