Clovis woman testifies about her kidnapping in 2016
It was all so startling the woman told the jury she first thought it was a prank.
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Clovis woman recounted her chilling 2016 kidnapping in great detail before a Fresno County jury on Wednesday morning.
As the victim testified about being kidnapped in 2016, she sat just feet away from the man prosecutors say is responsible and the woman who was the alleged mastermind behind the plot.
Prosecutors say the kidnapping was organized by her father's girlfriend, who was upset the father evicted her and her sons from his Clovis home.
"They took yellow rope and taped my arms behind my back, and then they walked me to the driveway by our guest house and shoved me in the trunk," the victim told the jury.
The incident dates back seven years to when the girl was 13.
Action News is not allowed to report her name or show her face.
Her father, Johan Gidstedt, was in a relationship with Sandra Garcia.
The two met online, and Garcia eventually moved into Gidstedt's Clovis home with two of her sons.
That is when Gidstedt says there was tension between his children from a previous relationship and Garcia's family.
"I asked her to move out in January of 2016," Gidstedt told the jury Wednesday.
Weeks later, the tension came to a head when Gidstedt was away on a business trip.
As his daughter walked home from the school bus stop on February 16, 2016, she told the jury that some men approached her.
"They were wearing all black and masks, so I couldn't see their faces," she said. "They took tape, very thin tape, like scrapbooking tape, and put it around my lips and eyes."
Prosecutors say Garcia was upset about the eviction, so she devised a plan for her son, Mark Anthony Roque, and her cousin to kidnap the teen girl.
On Wednesday, the woman told the jury the men forced her into a trunk. Her mouth was taped, and her hands tied behind her back.
Prosecutors say she was sexually assaulted with a stick, and unsealed court documents state the girl was left tied to a pole before she freed herself and got help.
It was all so startling the woman told the jury she first thought it was a prank.
If convicted, Sandra Garcia and her son face life in prison for the charges related to the alleged kidnapping.
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