Cops Seek Pinup Girl-Law Student's Accomplices

Jan. 2, 2008 — -- Two brothers who helped a former beauty queen-turned-law student kidnap and torture an ex-boyfriend may have fled the country to Colombia, Arizona authorities told ABC News.

Authorities have an arrest warrant for Micheal and Robert Ergonis, 44 and 46 respectively, in connection with a Dec. 8 kidnap and assault in which a former boyfriend of pinup girl Kumari Fulbright was tied up with cable and duct tape and threatened with knives and guns in two different houses during a 10-hour span.

"They're still on the run," Tucson Police Department spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco told ABC News. "We have reason to believe they have international ties."

Fulbright, a 25-year-old former Miss Arizona contestant, had reportedly served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Raner Collins while she attended the University of Arizona's law school.

She is listed as a member of the editorial board of the campus law journal, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Fulbright has been indicted on five felony charges, including armed robbery, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Fulbright was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bond.

Pacheco laid out a timetable of events that began Dec. 8 when Fulbright asked a former boyfriend to come to her Tucson apartment. Fulbright said she was going to take a shower, Pacheco said, when the Ergonis brothers entered the residence armed with handguns. Robert Ergonis was identified by police as another former boyfriend of Fulbright's.

"With guns, they tell him get down on the floor," Pacheco said. "They begin to accuse this victim of stealing some jewelry, according to Fulbright. She comes out of the shower and she begins to participate in this whole incident."

The Ergonises then placed the victim in a sport utility vehicle and transported him to another home in Tucson, where a third man, 40-year-old Larry Bruce Hammond, allegedly became involved.

"There were some tools. The victim sees these tools and he thinks they're going to use them on him," Pacheco said. "He honestly thinks he is going to get killed."

The victim told investigators the three men involved then left the apartment, Pacheco said, instructing Fulbright to "watch" the victim with a handgun. By this point, the victim had freed one of his hands and when she approached, he managed to grab the gun from her hand. The weapon reportedly discharged.

"They began to fight over the gun and the victim managed to get out of this apartment," Pacheco said, adding that a neighbor called police after hearing screams as the man ran from the house.

The call came into police at 10:50 p.m., about 10 hours after the victim had originally shown up at Fulbright's apartment.

Prosecutors in Pima County, Ariz., cite Fulbright in the indictment documents. "[Fulbright] specifically bit him several times while he was bound, stuck a butcher knife in his ear … said she was going to kill him [and] pointed a pistol at him."

The documents, which were obtained by the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, accuse Fulbright and the three men of taking the victim's wallet, cell phone, briefcase and hundreds of dollars in cash.

At one of the two houses, according to search warrant documents filed in court, police recovered a spent bullet, as well as .45-caliber ammunition, plastic gloves, marijuana and the victim's wallet and briefcase. At the other house, authorities recovered duct tape.

Tom Hartzell, Fulbright's attorney, did not respond to a message left Tuesday by ABC News, but suggested to the Arizona Daily Star that the ex-boyfriend's criminal history may compromise his credibility as a witness.

"We're eager to see the process through, and for the truth of this matter to come to light," Hartzell said. "My preliminary investigation indicates the alleged victim is not the most savory individual, and will be coming to court with a whole lot of baggage of his own."

The victim, who has not been named by authorities, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct in March; those charges were reportedly dismissed last month after he completed a court-sanctioned program.

It is the policy of the Tucson Police Department not to name the victims of violent crimes, Pacheco said. "If they're listed as a victim, we don't release any of their information," he said. "We can't really talk about what the victim may or may not have been involved in with the law."

But Pacheco also said that the victim's injuries were consistent with a kidnapping.

Fulbright will appear in a 2008 calendar for Subguns.com that features women in bikinis brandishing firearms. Fulbright is Miss May, according to Jeff Hawley, a founder of Title2Media, the company that produced the calendar for Subguns. In her photograph, Fulbright is pictured carrying an HK 51 machine gun.

"We were really shocked to see the story," Hawley told ABC News. "She was a very nice individual; she had modeled professionally."

Like Fulbright, Hammond was arrested in the days after the abduction. He was charged with the same crimes and remains held on $50,000 bond.