Chase Ends in Crash, Killing Abducted Baby : Kidnaping: Four who demanded cash from girl’s father and fled with infant are charged with murder.

A 7-month-old girl taken as “collateral” by gang members seeking money from her father was killed in a fiery crash as sheriff’s deputies gave chase early Wednesday, authorities said.

Jainah Alexis Spencer was taken from her mother’s apartment in Inglewood on Tuesday night by six men, two of whom are still at large, authorities said.

The other four abductors are in custody and charged with murder, authorities said.

The abductors had earlier kidnaped the baby’s father, Robert Lewis Davis, 29, who they claimed owed them money, according to family members.

With Davis and, later, Jainah as captives, the men searched sites from South-Central Los Angeles to Lancaster, hoping to find money they thought Davis had stashed away, authorities said.

In the high desert city of Lancaster, more than 100 miles north of where the incident began, sheriff’s deputies, tipped off by a Davis relative, spotted the abductors at the home of Davis’ mother, Esther Thompson, authorities said.

They gave chase, according to Lt. Ray Peavy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and followed the men for about 11 miles until the fleeing car spun out of control and crashed into a tree, bursting into flames.

Deputies pulled the baby from the wreckage and rushed her to nearby Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead about 15 minutes later, at 1 a.m., Peavy said.

“My little baby is dead,” Thompson said, sobbing over the death of her granddaughter during a brief interview Wednesday morning. “They had no intention of letting her go. I can’t believe someone would come 100 miles to do this. It’s just terrible.”

The incident began about 9:30 p.m. when the men stopped Davis at 130th Street and Avalon Boulevard as he drove through Willowbrook, Peavy said.

Davis later told authorities he got out of his car, not suspecting he was about to be abducted. “He felt comfortable,” Peavy said. “Apparently he knew the people.”

Davis also told authorities he did not owe the men--whom deputies identified as gang members--any money, Peavy said.

But one of the men held a knife to his side as the others pulled a towel over his head and beat him with the butt of a pistol, Peavy said. Pushing him into the driver’s seat, they forced him at gunpoint to drive to his nearby former address, though he protested that he no longer lived there, Peavy said.

When the men realized this was true, they ordered him to drive to the Inglewood home of his girlfriend, Sonja Spencer, Peavy said.

Spencer was at home with her three children when Davis and four of the abductors came into the house, Spencer said Wednesday. Forcing her to her knees, they held a knife at her throat and a gun at her head as the abductors searched the house, she said.

They came up empty-handed, and Davis suggested he take them to his mother’s home in Lancaster to get the money, Peavy said.

Spencer said that the abductor with the gun ordered Davis to take the baby with them.

“They wanted to take me first and then the one with the gun said, ‘No, take the baby,’ ” Spencer said.

When she tried to protest, one of the four abductors, who were all dressed in black, told her not to say anything, she said.

They warned her, she said, that if she called police they would kill her baby.

“They then took the baby as collateral,” Peavy said, “and proceeded to Lancaster.”

Two of the abductors squeezed into Davis’ compact Datsun along with Davis and Jainah, authorities said, with the other four men following in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

When they were gone, Spencer called the baby’s grandmother, Thompson, to warn her the abductors were on their way, Peavy said.

Once in Lancaster, the cars stopped in a deserted parking lot near Thompson’s house and the abductors transferred the baby to the Monte Carlo, Peavy said. With one of the abductors remaining with the baby, the other five followed Davis into his mother’s house and ordered her to empty her purse and show them to her safe, according to accounts given by Thomspon and Peavy.

As the abductors barked orders at Thomspon, her daughter slipped away to call the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station, Peavy said.

The abductors spotted an unmarked sheriff’s car when it arrived at the house, and three of them dashed to the Monte Carlo and drove off, leaving Davis and two accomplices behind, Peavy said.

Several patrol cars joined the chase. The abductors cut their car lights in an attempt to slip away, Peavy said. The car spun out of control at 90th and J Streets, according to a sheriff’s report, smashing into a tree and bursting into flames.

Deputies pulled the baby and two abductors from the wreckage, and the other two men crawled out, Peavy said.

The two abductors who remained at Thompson’s house fled on foot and were still at large Wednesday afternoon, Peavy said.

Arrested and booked for murder were Kenyon Pitts, 20; Calvin Robinson, 29; Dave Brian, 28, and a 28-year-old man who would not give his name, Peavy said. All are from the same South Los Angeles neighborhood, Peavy said.

A grieving Thompson recalled her granddaughter as a lively child. “Jainah likes to jump up and down in my lap,” she said. “She was a friendly baby.”

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Abduction and Pursuit

1. Robert Davis abducted on corner of 130th Street and Avalon in Willowbrook.

2. Davis taken to girlfriend’s apartment in Inglewood.

3. Davis, daughter Jainah, and abductors drive to home of Davis’ mother in Lancaster.

4. Abductors flee Esther Thompson’s home with Jainah. Crash into tree at 90th Street and J Street.