A short series of text messages shows the rapid unraveling of a peculiar-seeming plot to abduct Roanoke-area women and hold them for ransom.

"We just waiting ... We think she went to run some chores," Mohammed Hussein Guhad, then a senior at Patrick Henry High School, texted his classmate Anthony Eugene Boyd-Muse about the imminent kidnap attempt.

"We about to go in rite now!!" Guhad texted.

Then a warning: "Don't text me cause I got pulled over by da cops."

The messages became part of the court record Friday as the final defendants declared their guilt in the city's first federal kidnapping case in years.

Luke Musa Elbino, 20, of Vinton and Joshua Kasongo, 19, of Roanoke pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to commit kidnapping. Guhad, 20, and Boyd-Muse, 18, both of Roanoke, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Tuesday.

Scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 8, they face maximum penalties of life in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines likely will recommend less because the four do not have prior criminal histories.

The defendants' backgrounds have perplexed court officials since the case began. Kasongo, Elbino and Guhad are the children of refugees -- Kasongo's family, citizens of Congo, fled the genocide in Rwanda; Guhad's came from Somalia and Elbino's from Sudan.

Only one defendant, Boyd-Muse, is a U.S. citizen. Until the kidnapping plot emerged, all four had seemed on the path of pursuing education and jobs, according to testimony investigators and family members gave at earlier hearings.

Kasongo, Elbino and Guhad worked together at Securitas Security Services USA. They played basketball and went to the gym together. And they often discussed their need for more money, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlene Day said in a statement of facts filed during Friday's plea hearings.

Defense attorneys reserved the right to contest details of the statement at sentencing but agreed it laid out the basis for the kidnapping charges.

The prosecutor's account said the trio decided in March to target wealthy couples, to kidnap the wives and demand ransoms from the husbands.

Elbino was to conduct research on potential victims via the Internet and Kasongo was to negotiate ransoms.

Guhad, given the task of collecting supplies, asked Boyd-Muse to let them use an old recreational vehicle behind his home as a "stash house" to imprison a kidnapping victim.

They first targeted Rana Sass, wife of Brian Sass, the CEO of Double Envelope, but thought the family's neighbors were too watchful. On March 26, police responding to a suspicious vehicle call in the Sasses' neighborhood found Guhad and Elbino sitting in Elbino's father's sedan and using a laptop computer.

The would-be kidnappers then selected Audrey Levicki, the wife of Delta Dental of Virginia CEO George Levicki. They had driven past Delta Dental's offices and decided the company looked like it was doing well.

On April 6, Guhad, wearing false sideburns and carrying a backpack containing duct tape and a pillow case, and a masked Elbino came to the Levickis' Roanoke County home. They had called ahead to make sure George Levicki wasn't home and had driven by both the house and Delta Dental several times to check what cars were around.

Guhad told Audrey Levicki he was conducting a survey. Elbino stood out of Levicki's sight to the side of the door, a BB pistol tucked in his waistband.

When Levicki wouldn't open the door, Elbino tried to reach inside and Levicki slammed the door on his arm. She screamed for her husband as if he were home after all. Guhad and Elbino fled, running down the road toward where Kasongo waited in Elbino's father's car.

A neighbor spotted them and drove after them. They were quickly stopped by police.

As at earlier hearings in the case, the Levickis were in the courtroom Friday. Afterward, George Levicki said he trusted that U.S. District Court Judge James Turk will impose an appropriate sentence in October.

The Levickis were approached by Melvin Hill, the attorney representing Elbino. Hill said he wanted to convey Elbino's father's desire to make amends and to express that the father feels sorry for the entire episode.

"I think he is," Audrey Levicki answered. "I think it's a shame."

Staff researcher Belinda Harris contributed to this article.