Three men arrested for kidnapping, attempted murder at Santa Rosa marijuana farm

A dispute at a marijuana farm northeast of Santa Rosa erupted into violence Sunday, when the former head grower said he was beaten, tied up and interrogated by three co-workers who tried to kill him, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies arrested three men on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and other charges.

They were being held Monday at Sonoma County Jail on $1.2 million bail.

The incident unfolded around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, when one of the three men, Moises Calvillo-Chavez, 34, of El Cajon called the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and said the former head grower at a marijuana farm on the 6500 block of St. Helena Road “was going crazy,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement. Calvillo-Chavez told dispatchers he had tied the man to a chair, but then let him go.

When deputies arrived, they found an injured, barefoot 43-year-old Santa Rosa man with a broken chair duct-taped to his arm. The man claimed Calvillo-Chavez had kidnapped him, deputies said.

The man said Calvillo-Chavez had recently replaced him as the head grower at the farm. The two had disagreements over the last week as the man taught Calvillo-Chavez about the business, prompting the man to leave the main house on the farm and move into a neighbor’s home on the property, sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

The two men got into an argument and threatened each other around 2 a.m. Sunday during a phone call, the man told deputies. Shortly after the call, Calvillo-Chavez drove his truck to the neighbor’s home with a .22-caliber rifle and two friends, Chad Canup, 32, of Garberville and Salvador Martinez, 22, of Lakeside, sheriff’s officials said.

As Calvillo-Chavez got out of his truck, he pointed the gun at the man and tried to shoot multiple times, sheriff’s officials said. The gun malfunctioned, so Calvillo-Chavez hit the man on the back of the head with the gunstock, authorities said.

The man told deputies that Calvillo-Chavez, Canup and Martinez continued to hit and kick his head after he fell to the ground, then tied him up and threw him into his own truck. They drove to the main house on the property, duct-taped him to a wooden chair and interrogated him for hours, sheriff’s officials said.

When the three men left him alone, the victim broke the chair and escaped, running barefoot out of the house. Deputies found him on St. Helena Road, where he was treated by paramedics for a contusion on the back of his head and released.

Calvillo-Chavez, Canup and Martinez were charged with attempted murder, robbery, kidnapping, burglary, conspiracy, false imprisonment and vehicle theft.

“The cultivators of the marijuana grow have filed for a county permit and any violations will be handled through Permit Sonoma,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a release.

You can reach Staff Writer Susan Minichiello at 707-521-5216 or susan.minichiello@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @susanmini.