RIVERSIDE – Jury selection is slated to get under way Wednesday in the trial of a 49-year-old Victorville man accused of kidnapping a woman and holding her in a coffin-like crate in an alleged attempt to collect a ransom.

Mark Herbert Warren could receive life in prison if convicted on charges of kidnapping for ransom, burglary and identity theft, as well as multiple allegations of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

On March 21, 2007, Warren allegedly broke into a Canyon Crest home and, during a violent struggle that involved the use of a stun gun, disabled the 57-year-old female occupant, then bound and gagged her and locked her in a custom-built crate, according to prosecutors.

Warren had allegedly spent weeks and possibly months plotting the crime, authorities said.

He allegedly drove around in a van, with the victim locked in back in the crate, for several hours, eventually parking in a remote area of Lake Hills, just outside Riverside, according to investigators.

Air provided generated by a small fan was filtered into the crate through an opening at the front of it, police said.

Warren allegedly contacted the woman's husband, who investigators described as a businessman, and told him to deliver a sizable amount of cash at a predetermined time and location, according to prosecutors.

The defendant had also left a note at the victim's residence stating, “If you don't pay the money, she's going to die,” said Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Silverman, who handled Warren's preliminary hearing in May 2007.

Fearing that something illegal was under way, possibly involving drugs, a resident in the neighborhood where Warren parked his van contacted the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and a deputy went to the location to investigate, according to authorities.

The deputy ordered Warren to open the van, the victim was discovered and the defendant was arrested, investigators said.

According to Silverman, Warren had amassed personal information on dozens of people. It appeared to investigators that the defendant had picked names of business owners, some of whose brands are visible from the Riverside (91) Freeway, and developed dossiers on the individuals, raising the possibility that the defendant had planned other crimes, Silverman said.

The files served as the basis for 10 identity theft charges against Warren, the prosecutor said.

The abducted woman suffered dehydration and bruises but was otherwise physically all right after the incident, according to investigators.

Warren is being held without bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.