A 23-year-old man who allegedly assaulted and abducted his ex-girlfriend in Perris pleaded not guilty Wednesday to kidnapping to commit robbery and other offenses.
Jaden I. Ross of Riverside was arrested in June following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Along with the kidnapping count, Ross is charged with assault resulting in great bodily injury and a sentence-enhancing allegation of threatening violence.
He was arraigned Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Walter Kubelun, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Oct. 28 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Ross is being held on $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Thompson, the alleged abduction occurred in the predawn hours of May 27. Thompson said deputies were called to a residence in the 29000 block of Placentia Avenue, near Eureka Street, to investigate reports of a person in distress.
Deputies encountered the victim, identified in court documents only as “S.B.,” and she alleged Ross had forcibly taken her from one location to another.
“The victim was able to escape the alleged captor and, with the help of a citizen, call 911,” the sergeant said. “The suspect had already fled the scene.”
Over the ensuing days, detectives gathered sufficient information to obtain an arrest warrant for Ross, and the defendant was tracked to a property on Magnolia Avenue in Riverside, where he was taken into custody without incident on the afternoon of June 5.
Details concerning how long the victim and defendant had been involved were not disclosed. She has since obtained a criminal protective order, barring him from having any contact with her, court records show.
Ross has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.