LEWISTON — Police say the three people charged in the beating and burning of a local man Monday were trying to get money from him after being told he may have access to a good amount of cash.

Investigators, in a court affidavit available Thursday, said the 37-year-old man had been lured to the apartment at 73 Pine St. by a friend, who was forced at gunpoint to tell the man he wanted to talk about car shopping.

When the 37-year-old arrived, he was thrown to the ground and his hands were tied behind his back, according to the court document. He was pistol whipped by a man with a handgun, threatened with a knife and told that his wife and kids would be killed if he didn’t provide the group with money.

While the beating commenced over 15 minutes, according to the court document, the girlfriend of one of the assailants recorded the scene with her cellphone.

At the scene, police arrested Zachery “Pee Wee” Paradis, 44, and Jennifer Dionne, 42, charging each with kidnapping, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

Dionne is described in court documents as Paradis’ girlfriend.

Two days later, they arrested 31-year-old Nicholas Coy on the same charges. Coy and Paradis, men with long criminal histories in the Lewiston area, remained jailed without bail Thursday.

Dionne was released on bail earlier in the week.

According to the court document, filed by Lewiston Police Detective Aaron Schmitz, the man who lives in the apartment, a 55-year-old, had been forced by the group to call his friend and invite him over.

The group thought the 37-year-old had a good quantity of cash available to him from an ex-girlfriend’s trust fund, according to the affidavit.

The Sun Journal is not identifying the victim.

While the man was beaten repeatedly, the group demanded some of that money. According to the court document, the beating grew worse as it went on.

“The males kicked and beat (the victim) while demanding money,” according to the affidavit. “They heated a pot on the stove and burned (his) stomach and ankle with the hot pot. The girlfriend recorded the assault on her phone. … The tall man had a long black handgun and struck (the victim) in the head with it six to seven times. The male pointed the gun at (the victim’s) face and threatened to shoot him. The other male threatened (him) with a knife.”

The two assailants told the victim they would go to his home “and shoot his children if he did not comply.”

The man who lives in the apartment, the victim’s friend, told police the men had beaten him, as well, and forced him to call the 37-year-old to invite him over. The men told the 55-year-old that if he tried to warn his friend, they would “blow his head off.”

The 55-year-old stood in a corner with his dog during the attack, the victim told police. He did not watch the beating.

According to the court document, police interrupted the beating after they received a call from someone who reported hearing a commotion inside the apartment. It sounded, according to the affidavit, “like someone was getting beat up.”

When police arrived, they found Paradis, Dionne and a third man inside the apartment. Investigators were told that another man fled before police arrived.

Once detained, Paradis admitted to police he burned the victim with a hot pot four or five times. He told a detective he punched the man approximately eight times and that he struck him with a Hi-Point .45-caliber handgun 10 times.

Paradis told police he had recently traded $200 worth of crack cocaine for the weapon, according to the affidavit. He also admitted he smoked crack before the incident on Pine Street.

According to the court records, Paradis told police he had beaten the man, not for money, but over a previous comment made about his girlfriend.

“He stated he was not trying to kill the man,” according to the affidavit. “He acknowledged that he had problems controlling his aggression and had not received mental health treatment.

“He expressed that he felt his life was destroyed,” the detective wrote, “and stated he wished he had been killed during the incident.”

Paradis has a long criminal history in the area and was released from federal prison in March. In the affidavit, police said Paradis has spent roughly 28 years of his life in prison.

In 2022, Paradis was sentenced to 51 months in prison on gun and drug charges. He was released from federal prison March 16.

In 2017, he was charged with elevated aggravated assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm after a man was shot in the stomach on Holland Street in Lewiston. The charges were later dismissed.

Police said that during interviews with investigators, Paradis refused to speak about Coy’s involvement in the attack.

Coy also has a long criminal history in Lewiston that includes gun possession and robbery. He was arrested earlier in the year on a charge of arson in connection with a fire on Grove Street in December.

Before he was arrested in connection with the attack on Pine Street, police had been searching for Coy on other matters.

The victim of the attack suffered a seizure while he was being beaten, according to the affidavit. He was taken to Central Maine Medical Center and treated for injuries described as non-life-threatening.

The man who lives in the apartment where the alleged beating occurred has not been charged. Police have also not charged another man who was reportedly sleeping inside the apartment during the attack, although the case remained under investigation Thursday.