WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Wichita Falls man with a long criminal record is in jail in connection with an alleged kidnapping and torture case in January.

Donny Eldon Thomas Jr., 35, is jailed on $200,000 bonds for aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Police identified him through interviews and phone records, and the victim picked him out of a photo lineup.

Police interviewed the victim at the hospital on January 23, the day after the victim said it happened. They said his injuries included an eye that was swollen shut and a fresh burn mark on the back of his right hand.

He told them it began the night before when he gave a friend a ride to the friend’s house on North Martin Luther King Blvd. and when they arrived a man he knew only as “DJ” approached him with a gun and demanded his car keys.

He said “DJ” had brass knuckles on and punched him in the face several times and took his keys from his hand.

Then he said “DJ” bound his hands with wire and put him inside an SUV, and he was driven to an unknown house and again assaulted. After an unknown amount of time he said he was taken back to his friend’s house and put in a chair in the living room and assaulted again, and his car was taken.

Police said they found the car in the alley on North MLK Blvd. They also found the victim’s friend and a woman there and questioned them. They were shown a message from the suspect “DJ” the morning after the alleged assault in which he asked the friend “Has he said anything to you?”

The phone number was traced to Thomas. Police say a search of the victim’s car turned up wire which matched that the victim said was used to bind his hands.

A search of jail and court records shows no charges have been filed against the resident of the home on MLK Blvd, or the woman who was at that house when the car was found.