Pocatello brothers charged for allegedly attacking, kidnapping man

POCATELLO — Two men have been charged with multiple felonies after police say they attacked a person, kidnapped him and threatened to kill and dump his body in a river.

Seth Farell Williams, 44, and Drew Michael Williams, 54, are each charged with second-degree kidnapping and aggravated battery. Drew has also been charged with a persistent violator enhancement, while Seth faces a charge for receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle after he was found in possession of the victim’s truck.

Victim offers two different stories

The Pocatello Police Department received a call from the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office just after noon on June 28, 2022, reporting an assault in Pocatello, according to an affidavit of probable cause. A Bannock County deputy told a Pocatello officer that a man reported being assaulted to the Chubbuck Police Department.

The victim, an elderly disabled man, told police that he was attacked by two Native American men at the Portneuf Wellness Complex. The men then forced the man into a white van, he told officers, and began driving toward Fort Hall. He said the men threatened to drown him when they got to the Bottoms, the affidavit says.

“Several days later,” the victim gave police a different story. He said he was attacked by Drew and Seth, both of whom he knew. He said the two men had “badly beaten him.”

The victim told police that, on June 22, 2022, he picked Drew up from the airport in Idaho Falls and drove him back to his home in Pocatello.

When the two men got back to Pocatello, the victim told police he “made the mistake” of getting out of his truck to “relieve himself on a nearby bush.” As he exited the truck, he said Seth came up behind him and punched him the head, knocking him down. While he was on the ground, the victim said, Seth banged his head against another vehicle repeatedly.

The victim was then dragged into the home, where both men beat him more, the affidavit says.

He said he went to Portneuf Medical Center for treatment. There, the victim told police, he was diagnosed with a severe concussion, and seven cracked or broken spine “fins.” PMC provided medical records showing the victim had suffered the injuries described.

He said that while they were kicking and punching him, either Seth or Drew yelled, “Are you afraid to die? ‘Cause you’re gonna die, and I’m gonna kill ya’,” the affidavit says. They said they would throw his dead body into the river at the Fort Hall Bottoms, the victim recalled to police.

Asked how his account of the incident was so different now than it had been originally, the victim told police he was beaten so badly he misremembered. He said he was recalling another incident from the “recent past.”

Police search for evidence

The victim said Chubbuck police found him in the area — near New Day Parkway and Hiline Road — where he jumped out of the truck he’d been in with Seth and Drew and flagged down a passerby.

He told police that he was bleeding while he was inside the truck, which belonged to Seth. Officers collected video from traffic cameras in the area where the victim told them the truck was when he jumped out.

In one video, an officer describes a truck, matching the description provided by police, driving down New Day Parkway and turning on Hiline Road. In another video, a man matching the victim’s description was seen walking down Hiline Road and hiding behind a lightpole. The affidavit notes that what the man was hiding from was not caught on camera.

Officers spoke with several people who live in the neighborhood where the victim said he jumped out of the truck.

One person told police they did remember seeing a truck matching the description provided around the date and time of the reported incident. Another said they recalled hearing a man yell for help three times in about 90 seconds around the date of the reported incident.

Two other neighbors provided officers with surveillance footage they believed may have contained video of the incident. Officers reviewed both videos but found nothing of evidentiary value.

Officers reviewed more traffic camera video of the surrounding area and found the white Dodge truck, which they determined was registered Seth, driving along Olympus Drive and Fairway Drive roughly nine minutes before the victim was seen hiding on Hiline Road.

Officers continued canvassing the area, searching for evidence and the white Dodge, but were unsuccessful.

Suspects and family members offer different story

Police spoke with family member Seth and Drew.

One said they believed the victim had gotten drunk and gone on a “rampage.” The alleged witness said the victim was drunk and driving when he suffered the injuries.

Officers asked the victim about this claim. He told them he would not risk his CDL by driving under the influence and adamantly denied the claim.

A different family member said the victim had attacked her with a “great big flashlight.” The officer asked if police had been notified of the attack and taken photos of the injuries. She said she called the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, but responding deputies had not taken photos. She told the officer “her people” had pictures.

She said she did not want to discuss the specifics of the attack, because they were “traumatic.”

When the woman asked what the victim had reported happened, the officers said they were “intentionally vague” regarding the specifics of his claim.

The woman also told police the victim had gone to the Fort Hall Casino and gotten into trouble with “some Indians.”

When the officer asked how she heard about incident, she said that she hadn’t heard it from anyone — “directly contradicting the statement she had just made,” the affidavit says.

Police reports also note the woman changed her story regarding the victim’s truck, which the victim had not seen since the day of the alleged attack

Police locate the Dodge

After several attempts to locate the Dodge truck belonging to Seth, officers searched information from past interactions with him. During the search, they discovered the truck had been repossessed.

Using the truck’s VIN number, officers were able to confirm the truck in possession of the towing company was the one registered to Seth. They also visually matched it to the truck seen in surveillance footage from the day of the event.

While executing a search warrant on the truck, officers found a smear on the passenger door that tested presumptive positive for blood.

Evidence technicians also found what they believed to be blood on the driver’s seat and a brass button they believed to have been broken off the victim’s jeans.

After collecting the evidence, officers returned to the victim, who checked the pants he was wearing during the alleged attack and confirmed that those pants were missing a brass button.

Officers also asked about the alleged attack on the female witness. The victim denied that happening and offered to take a lie-detector test. The victim also said he had never been in Seth’s truck, aside from the alleged kidnapping.

Pocatello police detectives received the results of the DNA analysis from the evidence collected from the truck on Feb. 16, the affidavit says.

Using cell phone records, both Seth and Drew were located and arrested on June 22.

Both were booked into Bannock County Jail. Drew was released on his own recognizance with an ankle monitor on Aug. 31.

Seth remains in jail on charges associated to this alleged incident and for failing to register as a sex offender.

Though Seth and Drew have been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean they committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.

If they are found guilty, both men face potential prison sentence of more than 40 years.

Seth is scheduled for jury trial before District Judge Javier Gabiola on Dec. 19. Drew is scheduled to be arraigned into District Court by Judge Robert Naftz on Sept. 18.