Teen who helped in child abduction gets 17 months

One of four co-defendants charged with helping a mother abduct her 4-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in October at Vancouver Mall was sentenced Friday to 17 months in prison.

Francisco Javier Hernandez-Reyes, 18, was convicted of helping to kidnap another man whose car was used in the child’s abduction.

He was facing charges of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, second-degree theft and first-degree custodial interference. But he pleaded guilty to amended charges Friday in Clark County Superior Court. His charges were reduced to second-degree kidnapping, vehicle theft and first-degree custodial interference under a plea deal.

Defense attorney Jason Bailes said the prosecution agreed to amend his client’s charges and recommend the imposed sentence due to Hernandez-Reyes’ level of involvement and his lack of a criminal record.

Hernandez-Reyes and three others — Sherri Franchesca Trigueros, 16, Alejandro Xulu-Sop, 15, and Erick Garcia-Valdovinos, 18 — were arrested in connection with the abduction and kidnapping of a Centralia man, whose car was stolen and used in the child abduction plot, court records say.

The cases for Hernandez-Reyes’ co-defendants are still pending.

The victim, Jose Orellana-Gomez, told investigators that Lopez-Lopez lured him to her Vancouver apartment under the premise that she needed a ride to Centralia. But when he got to the apartment, several people — armed with kitchen knives and wearing masks — entered the apartment, pushed him down, bound him with duct tape and carried him to a bedroom where he was taped to an office chair, according to court records.

They blindfolded and gagged him, and placed headphones over his ears. The assailants demanded his car, a red Chevrolet Cobalt, and told him they would only need it a few hours. They also took his debit card and demanded the PIN, court documents say.

Orellana-Gomez estimated he was held in the room for more than 15 hours, before he managed to free himself from the chair. He jumped from a second-story window — his hands and ankles still bound with tape — and hopped to a passerby who called 911 for him, court records state.