HAYWARD — A local resident has been charged with kidnapping for allegedly holding a man hostage with a machete until the victim went to an ATM and paid for his own release, court records show.
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Police say the February incident started with a Facebook request, followed by a consensual romantic encounter between the two men. They say both the suspect and victim gave remarkably similar statements with one notable difference: The suspect claimed he’d been offered money for sex but the victim declined to pay, according to court records.
Now the suspect, Juan Rivera Ayala, 27, of Hayward, is facing charges of kidnapping to commit robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested and charged in June, and remains jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, records show.
The alleged victim told police the two men met up for a February date after meeting on Facebook. After their encounter, he said Rivera Ayala brandished a machete and raised it above his head as if he was about to swing it, then forced the man to withdraw money from an ATM in Hayward.
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Police tracked Rivera Ayala down through his Facebook account, and found him attending a domestic violence class from an unrelated criminal case, court records show. When detained, Rivera Ayala allegedly admitted to everything, including forcing the ATM withdrawal at machete-point.
But Rivera Ayala insisted that he was just trying to get what was owed to him, according to police; he said the alleged victim declined to pay him, so he took the man’s phone and used the machete to force him to settle up.
The preliminary hearing has been set for mid-August, records show. Rivera Ayala pleaded not guilty. On June 30, Judge Mary Ann O’Malley denied a prosecution motion to reduce his bail to $40,000, records show.
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