Police say a mother and her children were terrorized for hours by two armed robbers and they were nearly murdered. However, one of the gunmen refused to kill the family.
Two men are facing some serious charges. One man is facing aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, while the second is facing aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping charges.
Police say they targeted a family but they're not facing murder, because according to police, one of the suspects wouldn't go through with it.
Anne Drive is normally a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood in Webster, so what happened at about 4:30am Wednesday came as a surprise even to seasoned crime fighters.
"No, we don't have crimes against a person in Webster," Webster Police Chief Ray Smiley said.
Police say two men -- Charles Allen Jacobsen III and James Ellis Barnett -- let themselves in an unlocked side door of a home on Anne Street early Wednesday morning and bound a mom and her two teenage children with tape.
But the ordeal was far from over.
"The white male sexually assaulted the two females," Smiley said.
From there, police say the men forced the three victims into the mom's truck and drove to a field in Alvin, after stopping to buy beer, where Jacobsen allegedly wanted Barnett to kill the three.
Barnett refused.
Instead, they returned to the home on Anne Street, after stopping to buy more beer, and soft drinks for the hostages. Investigators say the suspects ordered the victims to clean up evidence, and that's when the teenage boy freed himself and found the family gun.
Police say Barnett fled in Jacobsen's truck to Dickinson, to buy more beer. Jacobsen took off on foot but was pursued by neighbors who heard yelling.
"He ran down and hid behind a house under construction; the officers had arrived by then," Smiley said.
Dickinson police arrested Barnett behind a fireworks stand more than seven miles away from the house. Webster police say so far, he's the suspect who's cooperating.
Smiley says this was not a random crime, but they're not quite sure yet why the victims were targeted.
"They drove straight to that house so they had picked where they wanted to go," Smiley said.
Smiley says Jacobsen was out on bond after he was arrested on drug and firearms charges when the crimes were committed.
The victims were checked out at local hospital. Jacobson has been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. Barnett has been charged with one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.
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