Defendant in Clovis trial admits to role in kidnap and torture of 13-year-old girl
Miguel Carriedo, a key witness in the case against accused kidnapper Sandra Garcia, testified Tuesday that he felt pressured by Garcia to carry out her plot to kidnap and terrorize the daughter of her estranged boyfriend.
Carriedo, who is Garcia’s cousin, is one of four defendants charged with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 13-year-old Clovis girl on Feb. 16, 2016.
He testified for the prosecution after agreeing to plead guilty to conspiring to commit a crime and torture. He faces a maximum of 15-years-to-life in prison.
For more than six hours, Carriedo testified about how he became entangled in Garcia’s scheme against her Swedish-born boyfriend who was ending their relationship and kicking her out their northeast Clovis home.
He did not deny being involved in the kidnapping. In secretly recorded phone calls, taped by Carriedo, he and Garcia talked numerous times about her plan to scare her boyfriend’s daughters so badly they would want to move to Sweden to be with their mother.
Carriedo, who studied engineering and architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, testified that he felt obligated to help his cousin, who was promising to connect with a paralegal to help him sort out a custody issue he was having with the mother of his two sons.
“I did not want to be a part of this, but she kept saying it had to be done,” he said.
But Garcia never came through with the paralegal, he said. He also said he regrets getting involved in crimes that left a 13-year-old girl and her family traumatized.
“I feel like a terrible person,” he said Tuesday. “I made some terrible decisions, and I went along with a horrible situation that I should have not been a part of.”
Carriedo appeared before the jury in a dress shirt an tie, despite being housed at the Fresno County Jail. His sentencing won’t happen until Garcia’s trial is complete.
Under questioning by prosecutor Adam Christopherson, Carriedo described how he and Garcia reconnected on social media after their families had grown apart. He grew up in Lompoc and later San Francisco. She is from Madera.
Carriedo said his conversations with Garcia were casual at first but soon took a more sinister turn. She shared with him her desire to see her boyfriend’s daughters move to Sweden, even if it took “scaring the hell out of them.”
At one point in their conversations, Garcia asks Carriedo how many “corrupted” people he knew that could help her with her problem. He responded that he knew a lot of bad people.
Christopherson asked Carriedo if he thought Garcia was serious. He said he thought she was “crazy.”
Carriedo acknowledged he should have put the brakes on the plan, but he didn’t until it was too late.
When asked by Christopherson if he ever thought he would participate in this plan, he replied, no.
When did things change, the prosecutor asked.
“When they put the girl in the trunk of my car,” Carriedo said. “I had no choice.”
The 13-year-old was taken by force from her home, shoved in the trunk and taken to the foothillls where she was tied to a tree and tortured and sexually assaulted. She later escaped and went to a nearby home where police were called.
Yan Schrayberman, who is defending Garcia’s son Mark Anthony Roque, asked Carriedo why he didn’t stop the kidnapping.
He said he tried to back out of driving the three accomplices, but he gave in after talking with Garcia.
“She finally convinced me to be a part of it,” Carriedo said. “She was kind of hinting that if you help me, I will help you.”
Garcia’s trial continues Thursday in Dept. 74.
This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 6:17 PM.
