Man tortured over drug deal says he will change his life

A detective says evidence in the torture is falling into line.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Shane DeSmith says he’s had it with street life after being tortured over a $50 drug debt.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled for Election Day for two men charged with torturing the 25-year-old Leavittsburg man.

So extreme were his injuries that DeSmith’s mother, Lisa DeSmith, thought he looked like the “Elephant Man” when she first saw him after his severe beating and burning.

Police have charged Stephen H. DeSantis, 47, and his son, Michael A. DeSantis, 22, both of 928 South St., with kidnapping and felonious assault. They are being held in the Trumbull County jail in lieu of $250,000 each.

They are accused of hijacking DeSmith, of Riverview Drive. He was walking along Porter Street on Saturday when authorities say the DeSantises ordered him into their pickup truck, drove him to their South Street residence and beat and burned him for seven hours.

At one point, DeSmith gave up and told the men to kill him.

Police also have a 17-year-old boy in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center and are searching for a third adult.

As a result of his experience, DeSmith said he’ll no longer be the middle man in drug deals. “I’ll have a better relationship with my children,” he said. He has two of them.

Detective Wayne Mackey said DeSmith has very good recall and the “evidence is falling into line.”

DeSmith said that he owed the DeSantises $50 because he had bought some marijuana from them for another person. The debt was a day old and he had the money to pay them.

DeSmith explained that he was walking along Porter when the DeSantises pulled up in a pickup truck.

He said they didn’t want the money. “It wasn’t the money. It was the principle,” he surmised.

The younger DeSantis, DeSmith recalled, had a handgun. DeSmith was forced into the truck and driven to their home.

He was taken to the basement and tied to a yellow chair. During the next seven hours, DeSmith said his feet were struck with a sledge hammer and a grinder was used to cut his toe through his shoe. At one point, a screwdriver was heated and poked into the wound.

Occasionally, he said, they would go through a tool box to see what else they could use on him.

“I didn’t think they were going to let me go and I just said kill me. Just let me call my kids first,” he said he told his tormentors.

“My body was in shock,” he added. The back of his head and arms were burned.

Finally, he was dragged from the basement, put into the pickup truck and dumped outside his home. He was treated at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital for about a day and a half.

Police recovered a .32-caliber handgun, bullets, hammer and torch from the house. Police also took evidence swabs of the basement floor, according to the police report.

yovich@vindy.com