Man found guilty of torture for kidnapping California grandmother, keeping her in trunk

Man convicted of torturing 76-year-old Calif woman

EL CAJON, Calif. — A man has been convicted of torture and attempted murder for beating and kidnapping a 76-year-old California woman and holding her in a car trunk for 26 hours.

Jurors in El Cajon reached their verdict Monday against Jeffrey Nelson. Prosecutors say Nelson pleaded guilty to 10 other charges before trial.

Natalie “Sandy” Herbst-Vinge had testified that a door-to-door vacuum salesman choked her until she was unconscious, tied her hands with duct tape and drove away with her in the trunk of her own station wagon in December 2008.

Herbst-Vinge bounced around the back of the car without food or water more than a day before a sheriff’s deputy pulled over Nelson and his two accomplices and freed her.

Nelson faces life in prison.