Couple with toddler accused of kidnapping man at gunpoint in Daytona Beach

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A transient couple from Maine living in Daytona Beach is accused of kidnapping a man at gunpoint and threatening to kill him, all while the couple's young toddler was in the vehicle with them.

Police say the couple befriended the man because they wanted drugs, and then they turned on him.

A judge found probable cause to hold 42-year-old Shannon Kay and 38-year-old Derek Pearson without bond on charges of kidnapping, armed burglary, aggravated assault and aggravated child abuse. The couple was arrested on Sunday outside the Ridgewood Avenue motel after they ran out of gas. Someone at the motel called the police to say the woman, Kay, was armed and sitting in the vehicle along with the victim and a toddler. Police say the "child was filthy and soiled in an unsecured car seat" and that suspect Pearson was outside the vehicle, pouring gas in the tank.

Police contacted the victim, who told them the couple kidnapped him at gunpoint after he had befriended the male suspect two days earlier and helped him get access to narcotics. The victim says at some point, the suspects accused him of stealing a phone and cash from them.

The victim was living in a converted school bus in the back of a shopping plaza on Nova Road when he says the couple burst in armed with what appeared to be a large caliber revolver and a handheld taser. The gun turned out to be a BB gun modified to look like a revolver. The victim says the couple forced him into their SUV and said, "they were going to take him with them back to Maine… they were going to make him suffer, kill him and burn his body along with the car to get insurance money."

The victim says the female suspect, Kay, was "driving crazy... running red lights and driving reckless" until they ran out of gas at the motel.

The judge appointed the public defender's office to represent the suspects. The Florida State Department of Children & Families took custody of the child.

Police say the SUV the suspects were driving was reported stolen by the father of the female suspect.