A Bell Gardens man who was accused of abducting his former live-in girlfriend’s teenage daughter in Santa Ana and sexually assaulting her over 10 years, ultimately marrying and impregnating her, was acquitted Friday of kidnapping but convicted of committing lewd acts on a child.
The Fullerton jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of guilt on a rape charge against 42-year-old Isidro Medrano Garcia, prompting Senior Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky to drop that count.
Garcia faces up to four years and four months in prison, with sentencing set for April 15. He will have to register for the rest of his life as a sex offender, Bokosky said.
The rape charge was dropped because prosecutors ran the risk in a retrial of only being allowed to tell a jury about evidence from that day and excluding any of the other evidence related to the other allegations, Bokosky said.
Before the verdicts were announced, Garcia’s attorney, Seth Bank, asked Bokosky if she would still go through with a previously offered eight-year prison deal on the kidnapping. She said she would, but Garcia decided against it.
“He gambled and he’s not facing life now,” Bokosky said.
The victim, then 15, was reported missing in August 2004 by her mother, who suspected Garcia, her one-time live-in boyfriend, of abducting her daughter. The mother also suspected at that time that Garcia had been sexually abusing the teen for about two months, according to police investigators.
Garcia met the girl in February 2004 and would buy her gifts and take her side when the teen quarreled with her mother, according to Bokowsky, who said Garcia molested and kissed the girl between June and August 2004.
Garcia was accused of forcing his captive into marriage in 2007 and had a child with her in 2012. The victim said she took pills to enhance her fertility during her time with Garcia, Bokosky said.
Garcia’s attorney contended that the girl had multiple chances to leave the defendant over the course of 10 years and go to authorities, but didn’t do so.
The girl contacted her sister through Facebook on her birthday in April 2014, marking the first time her family had heard from her in years. A domestic dispute involving her and Garcia in Bell Gardens led to the suspect’s arrest, police said.
During the trial last month, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen refused to grant the prosecution’s request to have former kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart-Gilmour testify as an expert witness.
Bokosky argued that Smart’s abduction in Utah bore similarities to the alleged kidnapping in Garcia’s case. He argued that in both cases, the victims did not take advantage of multiple opportunities to escape their captors because of threats.
Bank argued that Smart’s fear of the consequences of escaping were far more considerable. Smart testified that her abductors consistently threatened to kill her and her family if she tried to get away.
Smart’s story became the subject of a made-for-TV movie and she co-wrote a best-selling book about her experiences.
Smart said her experience was much like the alleged victim in Garcia’s case.
“She was being manipulated and held hostage by verbal chains as opposed to physical chains,” Smart testified out of the presence of the jury.
The threat of deportation and then later the fear of losing custody of her child were the prime discouragement from seeking escape, Smart testified.
—City News Service