2 Fresno women sentenced in kidnapping designed to protect domestic abuse suspect
Two Fresno women were sentenced this week for their efforts to kidnap a woman and her children in order to protect the woman’s romantic partner who was accused of domestic violence, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Rosa Ventura, 36, and Claudia Gonzales, 39, each pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to kidnapping involving a minor, and on Monday they were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston.
Ventura was sentenced to 20 years and Gonzales to 17 for the conspiracy that involved another woman, who was not an American citizen, and the woman’s 9-year-old and 5-month-old daughters, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The female victim was living in Mexico with her 9-year-old daughter when she met the brother of Ventura before she became pregnant with his child, prosecutors said in court records. The brother was also from Fresno.
Before the victim gave birth, Ventura helped to arrange for the woman and her child to move to the United States. Neither had legal status, according to prosecutors.
After giving birth to the younger daughter in Fresno, the woman reported to police on May 8, 2024, that her boyfriend had committed domestic violence against her. Court records say he was arrested and police seized a firearm.
Investigators said Ventura blamed the victim for her brother’s arrest, court records show. Ventura came up with a plan “to get rid of” the woman, which began the day after the brother’s arrest, court records say.
Ventura convinced the woman to help raise money for the brother’s bail by selling flowers, court records say. The woman left her infant with a relative while Ventura took the woman and the 9-year-old to wait at another home, records say.
Ventura then contacted Gonzales to help carry out the plan, according to prosecutors. Gonzales hid in the back of the SUV until Ventura drove to a field, where Gonzales emerged and sat with the others.
The women then began driving south towards Mexico while threatening the victim to cooperate or never see her infant again, according to prosecutors. The victims attempted to flee about 3 a.m. after the women stopped for gas, prosecutors said, but were overpowered by Ventura and Gonzales, who used a Taser on the mother.
Ventura took the cellphones of the victims, and the two were left at a bus stop in Tijuana, Mexico, about 4 a.m., prosecutors said. Before the women left, the victim asked about her infant, and Ventura told her, “it depended on what happened” in the brother’s case, court records say.
Over the next seven months, the victim attempted to speak to lawyers and law enforcement to recover her baby, records say. At one point she got Ventura’s mother on the phone, prosecutors said in the court records.
“If you open your mouth, you have children here. Then things will be worse,” the mother said, according to the court records. “You don’t want anything to happen to them, right?”
Ventura and Gonzales were arrested in December 2024. Law enforcement reunited the baby and mother that same day, according to records.
This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 12:05 PM.
