Kidnapped girl is found, dad arrested
A man who allegedly shot the mother of his 5-year-old daughter in Temecula and kidnapped the girl was arrested Saturday and turned over to Riverside County sheriff’s officials Sunday.
Kaylee Jocelyn Cardona was reported missing at 4:26 a.m. Saturday. An Amber Alert was issued about an hour and a half later, warning that her father, Jose De Jesus Cardona Alcala of Los Angeles County, might be taking her to Mexico.
Kaylee’s mother, Marta Ochoa, 43, was in a medically induced coma Saturday morning after undergoing surgery to repair damage caused by at least one bullet wound in the torso, according to Matt Diaz of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Alcala, 37, had dropped the girl off with relatives in Rosamond, about 15 miles north of Lancaster.
After finding the girl, Kern County deputies spotted her father at a nearby restaurant and arrested him about 4 p.m. Saturday.
Diaz said Alcala was taken to Murrieta on Sunday and booked on charges of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. Bail was set at $1 million.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
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