Two men charged with abducting a Van Nuys man who was shot, shocked with a Taser and held captive for five days while his kidnappers tried to negotiate a $1 million ransom payment.

Jurors began deliberations Friday in the federal trial of two men charged with abducting a Van Nuys man who was shot, shocked with a Taser and held captive for five days while his kidnappers tried to negotiate a $1 million ransom payment.

Vagan Adzhemyan, 41, of Costa Mesa, and Galvin Shaun Gibson, 31, of Mira Loma, are each charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping – charges that carry a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison.

The 11-man, one-woman jury received the case late Friday following nearly three weeks of testimony.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian R. Michael told jurors in his closing argument that the defendants showed a “callous disregard for human life” by “brutalizing and beating a man.”

Defense attorneys told the jury that the real victims are their clients.

“The issue in this case is really why there was a kidnapping,” attorney Harland W. Braun said, telling the jury that the Van Nuys man was taken hostage to protect Adzhemyan, who was afraid the victim planned to kill him.

“The real killer in this case is the government’s star witness,” defense lawyer Barry B. Smith told the jury.

The victim – a Russian who now lives in Colorado and was identified only by the initials S.K. – testified he was kidnapped after falling out with a group of alleged Russian mobsters over a failed $415,000 real estate deal.

The man, who admitted knowing people involved in organized crime, told jurors he was shot and shocked with a Taser during his abduction, and bound and blindfolded while being held captive.

“It’s a sad commentary when the government’s key witness is a member of organized crime,” Smith said in his closing argument.

But in his rebuttal statement, Michael invited jurors to throw out all of the victim’s testimony if they decided they couldn’t believe him.

“You may not like him … but there’s a mountain of (other) evidence establishing the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the prosecutor said, pointing to DNA, fingerprint and surveillance evidence.

Adzhemyan and Gibson were arrested last Aug. 3, when the victim was rescued from Gibson’s residence by a team of Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers.

The defendants are being held without bond.

Prosecutors allege Adzhemyan and an accomplice abducted S.K. from the underground parking garage of a Van Nuys apartment complex in the early morning hours of July 29.

Over the next five days, the man was bound and forced to wear a blindfold as he was held at various Southland locations by Adzhemyan and Gibson, he testified.

During the time he was held captive, the kidnappers directed him to use cell phones to make calls to family members and close associates in the Los Angeles area and in Russia in order to secure a $1 million ransom in exchange for his safe release, according to the indictment.

The day the kidnapping victim was rescued by the SWAT team, Adzhemyan and the accomplice used his ATM card to withdraw cash from his bank account, while Gibson and his three pit bulls kept watch over the blindfolded victim in Mira Loma, prosecutors allege.

The victim was in critical condition when he arrived at a hospital. When he was shot, the bullet passed through his abdominal area and ruptured his bowel, which caused a serious infection as the injury was left untreated for five days, authorities said.