2 who pleaded guilty to kidnapping man after drug deal went sour at Newport Coast resort are sentenced to prison

Two men who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a drug dealer after a marijuana transaction ended in a robbery last year at a Newport Coast resort will serve time in state prison.

Nicholas Andres Hernandez, 30, of Murrieta was sentenced Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court to 11 years after he pleaded guilty to a felony count of kidnapping. He also admitted to sentencing enhancements for having a firearm and a 2009 felony burglary conviction in Riverside, according to court records.

Steele Malone Burnside, 29, of Anaheim pleaded guilty May 10 to a felony count of kidnapping and was sentenced to five years.

Prosecutors dismissed two felony charges against Burnside and one against Hernandez in exchange for the guilty pleas, court records show.

According to authorities, the case unfolded Feb. 18, 2017, when Thomas Prince of Anaheim met with an unidentified drug dealer in the parking lot of the Newport Coast Shopping Center to buy marijuana.

The man brought 30 pounds of marijuana to the center to sell to Prince, but Prince wouldn’t move forward with the deal until 60 pounds had been delivered, Det. Joshua Vincelet testified during a preliminary hearing in Prince’s case last year.

Later that day, authorities said, the dealer and Hernandez met Prince at the shopping center with the rest of the marijuana. Prince instructed them to follow him to the Resort at Pelican Hill to complete the sale, according to court records.

When they arrived, Vincelet testified, the sellers put 60 pounds of marijuana in Prince’s Range Rover. Prince directed them to a suite where he said he had cash, but when they entered the room, several men with guns jumped out and ordered them to the floor, Vincelet said.

The armed men said they were police officers and searched Hernandez and the dealer’s pockets, taking cellphones, wallets and cash. Eventually the gunmen left. When Hernandez and the dealer left the room, Prince was gone.

Hernandez and Burnside, whom authorities identified as the dealer’s associates, kidnapped the dealer to seek a ransom of $130,000, the estimated value of the marijuana lost in the robbery. They took him to an apartment in Anaheim and told him to call his father and request money for the ransom, prosecutors said.

Newport Beach detectives launched an investigation after the man’s father reported him missing.

Police arrested Burnside and Hernandez shortly after midnight Feb. 20 near the apartment where the dealer was being held.

Prince was identified as a suspect in the robbery and was arrested March 29. In October, a Superior Court jury found him guilty of four counts of robbery. He was sentenced in December to 21 years in state prison.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN