Texas man pleads guilty in bizarre kidnapping case

Isaias Garcia, the Texas man accused of abducting the scion of a Fairfield family and holding him for ransom at the point of an alligator pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday. Isaias Garcia, the Texas man accused of abducting the scion of a Fairfield family and holding him for ransom at the point of an alligator pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday. Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close Texas man pleads guilty in bizarre kidnapping case 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT - A Texas man accused of abducting the child of a Fairfield family and holding him for ransom at the point of an alligator pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday.

Standing before Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin, Isaias Garcia appeared only too happy to plead guilty to first-degree unlawful restraint.

“Yes, sir,” Garcia said when asked by the judge if he understood the ramifications of his guilty plea.

He faces a year in prison when he is sentenced March 15.

The 30-year-old Garcia, of Garland, Texas, had been charged with first-degree kidnapping, attempted first-degree larceny by extortion, unlawful restraint, third-degree assault and threatening.

“Our investigation developed information that contradicted the original statement of facts,” Garcia’s lawyer, Senior Assistant Public Defender Jonathan Demirjian, told the judge.

“It was not a clear-cut case,” Devlin agreed.

Police said it was one of the strangest they have investigated.

Last April 6, the 21-year-old Fairfield man’s aunt and his father came to the front desk of the Police Department to report the kidnapping. Police said they played detective the phone messages they had received from the

victim.

Police said the victim told his aunt he had been kidnapped. His abductor was demanding $800 in ransom or he would “burn,” the young man.

“Titi, I was wondering if you were gonna send that money, ’cause I really want to go home,” police said the young man pleaded with his aunt in a subsequent phone call.

Working with the FBI, police said detectives managed to trace the cellphone number the victim was calling on to the Residence Inn in Shelton. They determined that in addition to being used to call the aunt, the phone had been used to call in a takeout order to a Stratford Chinese restaurant. Police said restaurant employees confirmed they had made a delivery to a room at the hotel and gave the room number to detectives.

As officers readied a raid of the hotel room, detectives told the aunt to assure her nephew that she was working on getting the ransom money and to demand that his abductors text her a photograph of her nephew.

“I want to make sure you’re still good,” she told her nephew in a subsequent phone call, police said.

No one was prepared for what came next, police acknowledged.

The photograph showed the victim lying face down in a bathtub, a 3-foot long alligator on top of him, it’s open mouth facing the camera.

“Titi, man they got this alligator on me and they saying that if no money is given they are gonna have him chewing on me,” the victim said in a follow-up phone call, police said.

But when police got to the hotel room, they said, the victim and his captor were gone. Instead, they said they found Garcia’s girlfriend and the alligator. While the state Department of Environmental Protection took control of the alligator, police said, detectives interviewed the girlfriend.

They said she told them that Garcia had arrived at the hotel room with the victim, ordered the victim to lie on a sofa and then just sat there staring at the victim until the young man fell asleep.

Told that Garcia was expected to return soon, detectives, along with Shelton police, waited nearby. When Garcia’s car pulled into the hotel parking lot police converged on it, guns drawn.

Police Lt. Chris LaMaine pulled Garcia from the driver’s seat, handcuffed him and recovered a large hunting knife tucked in the front of Garcia’s pants, police said.

Police said the victim had two burn marks, one on his face and the other on his right forearm. He told police Garcia had burned him with a barbeque-style lighter after tying him up.