Over and over Thursday, the federal judge commented on the irony of the case before him: the children of refugee families who had fled terror and strife in Africa, now accused of a kidnapping plot.

In successive hearings in federal court in Roanoke, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski said the unlikely sounding scheme attributed to four teens -- to abduct the wife of the CEO of a dental insurance company and hold her for ransom -- outweighed their otherwise clean records.

The judge said he had to deny bond for Luke Musa Elbino, 19, of Vinton; Joshua Kasongo, 19, of Roanoke; and Anthony Eugene Boyd-Muse, 18, also of Roanoke. But he said their family histories made it a particularly hard decision.

Elbino came to the United States from Sudan, and Kasongo, a citizen of Congo, from Rwanda during the genocide there. A fourth defendant, Mohammed Hussein Guhad, 19, of Roanoke is from Somalia.

Guhad also was ordered held pending a bond hearing to be conducted next week.

Boyd-Muse is the only U.S. citizen charged, though all are in the country legally.

"They came here for the promise of this country," Urbanski said of Elbino's family. "This case is sad all around."

To Kasongo's father, who took the witness stand to say he would offer his house as security if his son were allowed free, Urbanski said, "What you have gone through and your family has gone through is not lost on this court. That's what makes this so sad."

Each teen is charged with attempted kidnapping and conspiring to commit kidnapping, charges that stem from an April 6 incident at the Roanoke County home of George and Audrey Levicki.

George Levicki is CEO of Delta Dental of Virginia.

FBI Special Agent Scott Mayne, who testified at each hearing Thursday, said the teens targeted the Levickis after driving past Delta's headquarters and deciding it looked prosperous.

The teens researched the value of the Levickis' home and other information online, Mayne said. They wanted to ask for $1 million or $2 million, but would settle for $50,000 to $100,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlene Day said. They had earlier selected another possible victim, also in Southwest Roanoke County, but abandoned that plan because neighbors seemed too suspicious, she said.

They promised $20,000 to Boyd-Muse for use of an old camper at his grandmother's home and planned to hold the victim there, Day said. Boyd-Muse also gave Guhad a damaged .32-caliber revolver, though it was left in a closet and not carried, she said.

At some point, Boyd-Muse tried to quit, but he returned when his proposed pay was upped to $30,000, Day said.

Still, he was in class at Patrick Henry High School when Guhad, also a Patrick Henry student, and Elbino, a graduate of William Byrd High School and student at Virginia Western Community College, showed up at the Levickis' home. They had called first to make sure George Levicki was not home.

Audrey Levicki came to the door but was suspicious when Guhad said they were conducting a Red Cross survey. The Levickis had worked with the Red Cross.

She kept her foot braced against the door and when Elbino tried to reach inside, she slammed the door on his hand. Guhad and Elbino ran back to their car, a black, four-door Lincoln belonging to Elbino's father. Kasongo, a William Fleming High School graduate and "smooth talker" whose role was to be the ransom negotiator, waited as the driver, Day said.

But neighbors called police. One neighbor chased the teens until police stopped them.

Mayne said that Guhad, Elbino and Boyd-Muse all made statements implicating themselves or one another.

Police found handcuffs, rope, gloves, a BB pistol that looked like a real gun, and other supplies consistent with a kidnapping attempt in the car, Day said, along with a laptop whose hard drive had records of MapQuest and property value searches.

"What I'm struck by is the level of planning ... of premeditation," Urbanski said.

Roanoke attorney Melvin Hill, who represented Elbino, said the case should have stayed in state court, where charges of breaking and entering were filed, then dropped.

The case only became federal because of the "nature of the victim," Hill said, adding, "Abductions and kidnappings happen all the time."

Urbanski asked if Hill was arguing that authorities treated the case differently because Levicki's husband was "ostensibly a prominent member of society."

Hill replied that was part of his argument.

Urbanski frowned. "I don't buy for a minute the argument that kidnappings occur every day and this is some sort of routine behavior," he said.