Houston Charles-Stephens accused of targeting 2 delivery drivers and kidnapping them in Spring Branch

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Spring Branch man committed two kidnappings in two days, according to Houston police.

Houston Charles-Stephens allegedly targeted food delivery drivers in the Spring Branch area.

The investigation revealed that in both cases he held them at gunpoint and forced them to go to an ATM.

The 18-year-old is now behind bars facing two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one charge of robbery with a deadly weapon.

HPD said Charles-Stephens was arrested in part because of a language barrier.

His second victim convinced the suspect to let him call his wife, who knew better English. From there, his wife began tracking her husband’s location on her phone, eventually leading officers to their location.

Juan Chavez told ABC13 exactly how a phone call from his wife, Vanessa Chavez, saved his life.

On the phone, Juan Chavez said he was in a life-or-death situation, and Vanessa said her heart sank. She said she tracked his location while he made Uber Eats deliveries late at night on May 15. Her instincts told her something was wrong, so she called until he came to pick him up.

“I immediately said, ‘I’m calling the police now,’ and as soon as I said that, I heard the man’s voice; he said to me, ‘You’re not calling the police .I need you to send me $2,000,’” Vanessa Chavez said.

Juan Chavez said Charles-Stephens approached him with a gun at a Whataburger on Gessner Road.

This was supposed to be his last delivery of the night.

In his broken English, he convinced Charles-Stephens to let him phone Vanessa.

“I just said very quickly, ‘Okay, find a Bank of America.’ In my head, I said to myself: ‘I’m going to give my husband more time so I can call the police,'” Vanessa Chavez remembers.

Vanessa Chavez knew her husband’s Discover Card wouldn’t work at Bank of America.

She said after speaking briefly with Charles-Stephens, he hung up. Then Juan Chávez’s location went blank. Fortunately, police were already on their way to Fondren Road in southwest Houston, the last place they found him.

“He had the gun on me for so long at that point and I was scared,” Juan told ABC13 in Spanish.

He said they left the Bank of America and went to nearby Chevron, where police were already waiting for them.

“One of the officers called me and said, ‘Vannessa, we have your husband. He’s safe.’ I mean, it happened in a matter of minutes, but it seemed like a long time to me,” Vanessa Chavez said.

Houston police said Charles-Stephens kidnapped and stole a Domino’s Pizza delivery the day before. It happened at the Primavera Apartments on Hammerly Road and ended at a nearby ATM.

“I’m really happy they caught this guy because we didn’t know it at the time, but it’s probably something he’s done before and something he would do again,” Vanessa said Chávez.

Vannessa Chavez says it was her husband’s side hustle and a way to support their twins. However, food delivery is no longer a revenue source worth considering.

“We never imagined something like this would happen to him, so I told him, ‘You’re not doing Uber Eats anymore,'” she said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family.

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