FORMER BRONX BUILDING SUPERINTENDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING IN THE ABDUCTION OF THE 12 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OF A TENANT

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that Pedro Garcia, a former building superintendent, pled guilty to one count of Attempted Kidnapping in the 2nd degree in the abduction of the twelve-year-old daughter of a tenant in March 1998.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett set sentencing for Friday, April 4, 2008 in Part T-60. Under terms of the plea agreement Garcia will be sentenced to a term of 2 1/4 to 4 1/2 years in prison. However, Garcia left the courtroom a free man after pleading guilty since he has already served more than six years in prison in connection with this incident. Garcia initially was found guilty of Kidnapping in the 2nd degree and sentenced to 10 - 20 years imprisonment, but that conviction was recently overturned by the New York State Appellate Division which ordered that he be granted a new trial.

In pleading guilty to the reduced charge of attempted kidnapping, Garcia admitted under oath in open court that he had acted-in-concert with his wife, Betsaida Melendez-Garcia, in abducting the child whom he knew was 12 years old at the time, March 24, 1998. Garcia, under oath, also admitted to the following facts: That the police, on several occasions, went to Garcia’s basement apartment home at 528 East 142nd Street with inquiries about the child and that he had lied to investigators by denying that he knew where she was; that he did not have permission, authority or consent of the girl’s mother, Lillian Rodriguez, to have the girl live with him or his wife; that he, Garcia, knew that the girl’s mother was looking for her during the entire year that the child was with him and that the girl did not attend school in order to prevent her whereabouts from becoming known.

While Garcia did not admit to using force, force is not a necessary element to prove kidnapping when the victim is a child under 16 and a defendant acted without parental consent. The victim, however, did allege that she was lured to Garcia’s basement apartment in March 1998 where she was detained, tied and hidden in the boiler room for one year until being taken out of the country.

Garcia, admitted that in March 1999 he paid for a one way plane ticket to Puerto Rico for the child, under another name, in order to prevent the police or her mother from finding her. He said the child was taken to Puerto Rico by his wife and left in the care of friends who were told that the young girl was a relative. Melendez-Garcia then returned to New York.

Several months later the abduction came to light when the people in whose care the child had been left, took her to a police station in Carolina, Puerto Rico after a hostile confrontation with Garcia who had returned to Puerto Rico to attend a funeral. The girl’s caretakers were angry over not receiving any financial support for the child. Once authorities in Puerto Rico learned of the abduction after questioning the child and her caretakers on the Island, she was reunited with her mother.

Kidnapping charges subsequently were filed against Garcia and his wife Betsaida Melendez-Garcia, both of whom were tried and found guilty in absentia after jumping bail during jury selection in August of 2001. The couple was captured in Puerto Rico two months later and returned to the Bronx where they were sentenced to 10 - 20 years in prison.

Melendez-Garcia, whose conviction also was overturned by the Appellate Division, turned down the same plea offer that was made to her husband and is still awaiting a re-trial.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Glucksman of the Investigations Division.