Two More Arrests in Alleged Hookup Turned Robbery, Beating

Two more men have been arrested in connection with an alleged incident in which a Florida man who says he arranged for a sexual encounter using social media was allegedly kidnapped, beaten, and robbed.

Police had already arrested 20-year-old Matthew Evans of Vero Beach, Fla. after the alleged victim filed a complaint in which he said that he had set up a meeting in the town of Sebastian with two men using Instagram. The man told authorities that he had promised to pay the two for their time, as previously reported at EDGE.

But when the supposed victim arrived, he claimed, one of the men he was meeting, Evans grabbed him in a choke hold and hurled an anti-gay epithet at him. He was then taken by car to San Sebastian Park, he said, where a third man waited, armed with a gun. He was then beaten and robbed, losing consciousness and suffering facial fractures during the alleged assault. When he came to, the man found his phone and pants were missing. He walked home and called the police.

Police already had Evans in custody when two other men – 19-year-old Christopher Simes and Christian Lopez-Wheeler, also 19 – turned themselves in, according to a report in local news outlet TC Palm.

The follow-up story provided new details, including claims that Simes had served as the wheelman and Lopez-Wheeler was the one wielding the gun when the men arrived at the park with the purported victim.

Evans and Lopez-Wheeler were also named in the story as the assailant who allegedly beat the abducted man.

Simes and Lopez-Wheeler were booked and detained in jail, where Evans was already being detained. Bail was set for Simes and Lopez-Wheeler, at $125,000 and $$100,000 respectively; no bail amount has been set for Evans, the article said.