New Jersey men Jarret Bruce (left) of Englewood, Lesly Valentin (middle) of Asbury Park and Aasim Boone (right) of Englewood were convicted of kidnapping and torturing an Astoria man in 2022. Photos courtesy of EDNY
July 15, 2025 By Bill Parry
Three New Jersey men were convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn on July 10 for a violent kidnapping and extortion attempt in Astoria in 2022.
Aasim Boone, 42, and Jarrett Bruce, 41, both of Englewood, and Lesly Valentin, 39, of Asbury Park, were found guilty of kidnapping conspiracy, transmission of interstate threats with intent to extort and attempted obstruction of justice. The verdict followed a three-week trial, and all three defendants face up to life in prison.
As proven at trial, Boone, Bruce and Valentin conspired to kidnap the Astoria man on Dec. 9, 2022. The victim was abducted outside his Astoria apartment complex. After he was forced into a vehicle at gunpoint, Boone, Bruce and Valentin drove him to New Jersey, where he was subjected to escalating forms of torture and held captive for more than five hours.
During the harrowing ordeal, the three men beat the victim with a gun, poured bleach on him, burned his back and legs with a blowtorch and sliced the victim’s ear with a knife. The Astoria man was finally released on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Several days after the abduction, Valentin sent text messages to the victim, threatening further harm to him and his family if he failed to provide his kidnappers $150,000 in cash and 50 pounds of marijuana. After the scheme was uncovered, Boone attempted to destroy electronic evidence linking him to the commission of the crime.
“This was a heinous crime in which the defendants targeted a victim, abducted him from outside his home, and subjected him to barbaric acts of torture and cruelty, all for financial gain,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said. “Once their crimes were uncovered, the defendants tried to destroy the evidence. With today’s verdict, the defendants’ efforts to escape accountability have failed and they now face significant punishment.”
The defendants are no strangers to law enforcement and have extensive criminal histories and are believed to have participated in a series of residential burglaries committed by a violent street gang operating out of New Jersey, federal prosecutors said.
Valentin had previously pleaded guilty in New Jersey state court to aggravated assault related to a previous kidnapping.
Nocella thanked the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force, which is comprised of agents from the FBI and NYPD detectives, for their assistance with the investigation.
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