MANCHESTER, NH – A 45-year-old man was tied to a tree naked, had bleach poured on him and was cut twice in the chest because he didn’t come through with a rental car or cash from a drug deal, according to court documents.
Someone saw Christopher Upham in the woods behind Wal-Mart in Derry last Thursday and called police. Upham managed to free himself but police took him to Parkland Medical Center in Derry and then called Manchester police after Upham told them he was kidnapped from a friend’s apartment at 156 Merrimack St.
The incident, he told police, stemmed from a traffic accident in the city last Thursday, June 18, 2020. He was a passenger in a car being driven by “Spanish Jay,” who police identified from the accident report as Ronny Betances, 37, a homeless man from Hooksett.
The collision happened at the intersection of South Beech and Gold streets. Betances asked Upham to go rent another vehicle for him for three days. Betances gave Upham $100 and “one stick of down,” the street name for heroin.
Betances kept Facebook messaging Upham about the status of the car and money. Upham told police he was purposely avoiding Betances but told him he would be along with the money shortly. That was a lie, which angered Betances.
Betances, with another unidentified man, caught up with Upham at an apartment at 156 Merrimack St. about 5 p.m. that same day. Betances asked Upham about the car, the money and the drugs and Betances said he did not have any of them.
“You fucked up,” Betances told him. “We will talk.”
Betances led Upham into a bedroom. Once inside, Betances punched Upham in the left side of his face, according to the sworn affidavit of Detective Ryan Heile. Betances then pulled out a 7-inch knife and pressed the blade to the back of Upham’s neck. “Let’s go,” he said.
The three walked out of the apartment and to a dark-colored, four-door sedan. Two women were sitting in the back seat. The unidentified man sat in the back with the women. Once Upham sat down in the front passenger seat, Betances punched him again in the left side of the face and pulled out the knife again, Heile wrote.
Betances held the knife three to four inches from Upham’s face and demanded his wallet and his cell phone. Betances told Upham he owed him $400 but then upped it to $500 because of his time and hassles.
Upham had no money so Betances drove to the Elliot Hospital where Upham’s girlfriend was a patient believing she would have money to give Betances. One of the women, who was in the back seat, went into the hospital. Ten minutes later, she returned saying hospital staff had removed her.
Betances then drove to Rite Aid on Mammoth Road and unsuccessfully tried to use Upham’s ATM card to get some money.
Their final destination was the Derry Wal-Mart. Betances went into the store for about 20 minutes, returning with a gallon of bleach, some white rope and a neon green winch cable. He ordered Upham out of the car and he and the other man walked him behind the building and into the tree line. He told Upham to remove his clothes and once he was naked, Betances and the other man tied his hands to a tree and then used the winch to tie both his feet together. When he was bound, Betances and the other man poured bleach over Upham’s body, including his face.
“I am going to show you mercy,” Betances told him but then cut Upham twice in the chest with the knife. As the men walked away, Betances warned Upham, “Don’t you make a sound or I will come back and cut you,” according to court documents.
After a few minutes, Upham was able to free himself. At that same time, someone saw him and called Derry police.
Five days before the incident, Betances was arrested on an outstanding warrant charging him with receiving or possessing stolen property in Manchester. He was released on bail with conditions including he not commit a federal, state or local crime.
He also was not to possess a firearm, destructive device, dangerous weapon, or ammunition.
Betances is charged with kidnapping, robbery, two counts of simple assault and criminal threatening.
He was video arraigned from the Valley Street jail on Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District. Judge David A. Anderson ordered him held in preventive detention (without bail) because, the judge wrote, of the “highly violent nature of the alleged incident which involving (sic) forcing the alleged victim at knife-point to go with the defendant and others and which resulted in the alleged victim being stripped and tied to a tree, having bleach poured over the alleged victim, and being cut with a knife. Defendant also allegedly threatened to ‘cut’ the victim if he made noise about the alleged abuse.”
On Sunday, police arrested Ariel Dupuis, 29, in connection with the incident. She is charged with criminal liability to kidnapping and criminal liability to robbery. Dupuis is free on $2,500 personal recognizance bail and has a court hearing on July 30 in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District.
Editor’s note: The headline has been corrected from an earlier version for accuracy.
