SAN JOSE (KCBS RADIO) – Two defendants accused of kidnapping a San Jose infant earlier this year have pleaded no contest to all eight of their charges.
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Yesenia Ramirez, 43, and Jose Portillo, 28, entered their pleas on Tuesday a two-day preliminary hearing that was supposed to determine whether or not there was enough evidence to go to trial over charges that the pair kidnapped Brandon Cuellar, who was just 3 months old at the time, from a San Jose apartment in April.
But the judge presiding over the case offered the pair, who allegedly tried to kidnap Cuellar multiple times, reduced sentences in exchange for pleading out. They will be sentenced in October, with Ramirez facing up to 14 years in prison and Portillo as many as five.
"This case just got worse by the day for the defense, and I think the defendants wanted to cut their losses," Legal analyst Steven Clark, a former Santa Clara County District Attorney, told KCBS Radio on Tuesday night. "This clearly was not going to get better at trial."
This week's hearing turned up a number of surprising revelation in the case, including police testimony that Ramirez, Portillo and another man were involved in a complicated love triangle. An officer claimed Ramirez tricked the other man into believing that he had fathered Cuellar with her.
Cuellar's kidnapping drew national attention, and he was found less than a day after he was reported missing. His grandmother said the baby was taken as she unloaded groceries from her car, and police said they found Cuellar in Portillo's home. Ramirez had driven Cuellar and his grandmother multiple times when she was running errands, according to police.
Clark said that key questions still remain.
"Why was baby Brandon chosen for kidnapping?" Clark said. "And that is something I think the court will want to know when they conduct the sentencing hearing."
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