EVERETT — A kidnapping charge was filed Friday against a man accused of convincing a developmentally disabled Snohomish girl to spend the night with him in a friend’s Lynnwood mobile home.
Albino Estrada Montano, 60, admitted meeting the girl for the first time Aug. 6 at a Snohomish fast-food restaurant and talking her into accompanying him on a bus trip.
Estrada Montano admitted that at some point he learned the girl was just 14. He also acknowledged that he refused to let her leave, deputy prosecutor Kathy Jo Blake said in Snohomish County Superior Court papers.
That’s second-degree kidnapping, because he hid the girl and restricted her movements, and took her with him without permission of her parents, Blake said.
The girl has the mental capacity of a 8-year-old, according to police. A frantic search began after she failed to return home from a bike ride to a friend’s house.
She was found the next morning after grocery store workers in Lynnwood called police after recognizing her from news reports.
Estrada Montano was found at a nearby McDonald’s and arrested on an unrelated warrant. When asked by an officer if he was there alone, he replied, “No, I’m here with a little girl,” the prosecutor said.
Based on statements the girl made after the arrest, police initially feared she may have been molested. When questioned by a child interview specialist, however, the girl denied that happened, and claimed that Estrada Montano is her grandfather and that she loves him, Blake said in an affidavit.
This much is clear from the interview, Blake wrote: the girl’s “cognitive deficiencies would be readily apparent to anyone who engaged her in conversation.”
Estrada Montano allegedly pretended to be the girl’s grandfather, even though they aren’t related and had never met before he encountered her in Snohomish, the prosecutor said.
When questioned by police, he admitted spending the night with her at a friend’s home and refusing to let her leave when she asked. He claimed she initially told him she was 18, but he subsequently learned her true age.
“The defendant further admitted that it was a mistake for him to take (the girl) from Snohomish and he should not have done it,” the prosecutor added.
Estrada Montano apparently is homeless. He was charged in 1986 with indecent liberties based on allegations that he’d sexually touched an underage girl. An arrest warrant was issued, but the charge eventually was dismissed.
Prosecutors are asking the court to keep him jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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