A man appeared in court on Monday for his alleged role in kidnapping a young mother and her 1-year-old daughter.
Eleodoro "Leo" Estrada-Hernandez, 37, is charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree kidnapping, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of assault by pointing a firearm.
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Authorities said Estrada-Hernandez and siblings Paola Duran Duran and Miguel Angel Duran Duran face charges from the April 29 kidnapping of the 1-year-old girl, Grecia Salome Alejandro-Benitez, and her mother Alondra Michelle Benitez De Jesus.
The kidnapping prompted authorities to issue an Amber Alert around 2 a.m. Tuesday, April 29. Police found the mother and child unharmed around 7:45 a.m. that same day at a Wake Forest home.
WRAL News is working to learn if the kidnapping was targeted or random.
“While unloading groceries, a black Nissan Altima pulled up and Mr. Martinez [De Jesus’ husband] was assaulted while the other two were taken away by three individuals,” a prosecutor said Monday in court.
Court records show the kidnappers, Estrada-Hernandez and the Duran Duran siblings held the family at gunpoint and demanded $1 million from Benitez de Jesus's employer.
When they met resistance, Martinez was tied up, and the group took the woman and her daughter.
The prosecutor said in court on Monday that there was some level of planning in the April 29 kidnapping.
“She was taken into a vehicle and driven a short distance and stopped and placed into another vehicle and taken to the woods and let out in the woods,” the prosecutor said.
Wake Forest neighbors told WRAL News that De Jesus showed up barefoot and her daughter was only in a diaper. Neither was physically harmed.
“He’s a danger to the public,” a prosecutor said. “A child and woman abducted on a public street in the evening in Garner.”
Like the Duran Duran siblings, Estrada-Hernandez will remain behind bars for the duration of this case with no bond.
Estrada-Hernandez is due back in court on May 27.