Man Sentenced For Kidnapping Ex-Girlfriend

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A young man who kidnapped his 16-year-old pregnant ex-girlfriend at knifepoint from her mother's home and took her to Tijuana was sentenced Thursday to 364 days in jail and will have to fight deportation to Mexico.

Carlos Omar Antonio, 21, pleaded guilty on May 2 to assault with a deadly weapon and child abduction charges.

Antonio is in the United States legally, but may have to contest possible deportation to Mexico since the assault conviction is considered a violent felony, said Deputy District Attorney Hector Jimenez.

South Bay Superior Court Judge Esteban Hernandez suspended a two-year prison sentence for the defendant.

Ashlee Crocitto and Antonio were brought back to the United States on March 10, two days after he kidnapped her from a parking lot in front of her mother's apartment on Santa Ynez Avenue.

An Amber Alert was issued on March 9, which resulted in the posting of descriptions of the missing pair on freeway billboards, and Mexican authorities located them early the next day, taking Antonio into custody at gunpoint.

Antonio and Crocitto, who was four months pregnant with his baby, drove to his grandmother's house in south Tijuana. He didn't hurt her, and his family treated her well, the teenager said.

The two had dated for several months and had broken up the day before the abduction, she said.

During her absence, the girl called home several times to say she was OK.