South Florida man convicted of kidnapping and torturing plastic surgeon using blowtorch

MIAMI (TCD) -- A 56-year-old man was found guilty of kidnapping and torturing a plastic surgeon with a blowtorch in a storage container on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida, on January 14, 2019, Serge Nkorina and his co-conspirator, 34-year-old Justin Boccio, kidnapped the victim at a supermarket as he returned to his car with groceries. The Miami-Herald reports that the victim, later identified as Dr. Nader Shehata, was forced into a van at gunpoint and blindfolded. He was reportedly tased as well.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Dr. Shehata was a plastic surgeon who had treated Nkorina’s wife.

Nkorina and Boccio reportedly plotted to kidnap and torture the plastic surgeon as a way to steal tens of thousands of dollars from him.

As part of the plot, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Nkorina and Boccio stalked Dr. Shehata using a GPS tracker on the bottom of his car, and they rented the storage container in addition to buying torture devices from hardware and medical device stores.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Nkorina and Boccio took Dr. Shehata to the "Margate Storage container, where they tortured him for hours."

The U.S. Attorney’s office added, "Nkorina burned the victim’s hands with a blow torch, forcing the victim to reveal the security gate and door codes to his home."

Nkorina and Boccio went to Dr. Shehata’s home with the codes but were "scared off by a light connected to the doorbell camera," the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The Miami Herald reports that they left Dr. Shehata tied up in his car in the parking lot of Cheetah, a strip club.

After the kidnapping, the Miami Herald reports that Nkorina fled the country but was arrested in Spain last year. He was reportedly transported to Miami in January 2021.

On Tuesday, Dec. 7, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Nkorina was found guilty of conspiring to commit kidnapping and the actual act of kidnapping. His sentencing is scheduled for February 15, 2022, and he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Boccio pleaded guilty and is currently serving an 11-year sentence.

The Miami Herald said Dr. Shehata survived the incident but was separately charged with a federal crime in October 2020 for misbranding Botox prescription drugs at his practice. According to an obituary, Dr. Shehata passed away in April 2021, and his cause of death remains unknown.

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