Insets, from left: Frederick Rudolph and James Daniels (Florida Department of Corrections). Background: Scene where Rudolph and Daniels killed two men in Opa-Locka, Florida (WTVJ).
A federal jury in Florida convicted two men of kidnapping three people by throwing them into the back of a van before driving around for hours and then shooting the victims, killing two while the third “miraculously” survived.
James Edward Daniels, 59, and Frederick Eugene Rudolph, 69, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, multiple counts of kidnapping resulting in death, and kidnapping, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Daniels, Rudolph and others snatched the victims from a truck yard in Opa-Locka, a suburb of Miami, on Dec. 5, 2020, and threw them into the back of a rented U-Haul van. The suspects tortured the victims, duct-taped their eyes shut and stole their drugs, prosecutors said.
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Daniels and Rudolph proceeded to drive around the area with the victims “for hours” before pulling up to an abandoned house and trying to execute the victims. Two of them, later identified as Osmar Oliva, 50, and Johan Gonzalez Quesada, 26, died. A third was airlifted to the hospital but survived against the odds, according to prosecutors. Miami-Dade police noted that the victims had also been tied up. Daniels also stole jewelry from one of the victims, feds said.
The two suspects face up to life in prison when they are sentenced on March 10. A third man, 56-year-old Herbert Barr, pleaded guilty to kidnapping on Nov. 26.
Records show Daniels and Rudolph were also indicted on unrelated drug distribution charges in July 2022. In that case, a judge earlier this year sentenced Rudolph to 11 years in prison and Daniels to 35 months in prison, or just under three years. The men were indicted for the kidnapping case in November 2023. Neither is a stranger to the criminal justice system. Daniels’ Florida Department of Corrections incarceration history dates back 40 years. Rudolph was on probation for a drug-related charge at the time of the murders, records show.
