{"id":373315,"date":"2026-06-24T18:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/373315\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:22:24","slug":"women-sentenced-to-20-and-17-years-for-kidnapping-plot-holding-infant-in-fresno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/373315\/","title":{"rendered":"Women sentenced to 20 and 17 years for kidnapping plot, holding infant in Fresno"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Two Fresno women were sentenced to decades in federal prison after prosecutors said they conspired to kidnap a young mother and her 9-year-old daughter<\/a> and used the mother\u2019s 5-month-old baby as leverage.<\/p>\n

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston sentenced 36-year-old Rosa Ventura to 20 years in prison and 39-year-old Claudia Gonzales to 17 years for conspiring to kidnap a woman and her 9-year-old daughter while unlawfully withholding the woman\u2019s 5-month-old baby, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the adult victim of a 9-year-old daughter living in Mexico met Ventura\u2019s brother and later became pregnant with his child. <\/p>\n

Before she gave birth, Ventura arranged for the mother and her daughter to come to the United States despite lacking legal status.<\/p>\n

After settling in Fresno, the mother gave birth to a second daughter. <\/p>\n

Then, on May 8, 2024, the victim reported her boyfriend to the police for domestic violence, and he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said his arrest angered his family, especially Ventura, who blamed the mother and devised a plan to kidnap her and take her to Mexico.<\/p>\n

On May 9, Ventura told the mother she needed help raising money for Ventura\u2019s brother in jail. <\/p>\n

The mother agreed and left her 5-month-old baby with a relative. <\/p>\n

Ventura drove the mother and her older daughter to Ventura\u2019s home, where she and Gonzales carried out the kidnapping.<\/p>\n

Gonzales hid in the trunk of Ventura\u2019s car, according to court documents, and instead of taking the mother to retrieve her baby, Ventura drove the mother and daughter to an open field, where Gonzales emerged from the trunk and moved to the front seat with the victims. <\/p>\n

Ventura threatened the mother and warned her she might never see her baby again, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

During an attempted escape, prosecutors say Gonzales used a taser on the mother, and Ventura confiscated their phones before driving across the border to Tijuana.<\/p>\n

Ventura abandoned the mother and her daughter at a bus stop in Tijuana with no way to return, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

When the mother asked about her infant, Ventura told her it depended on what happened in her brother\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

For the next seven months in Mexico, the mother sought help from lawyers, law enforcement, and Ventura to recover her baby. <\/p>\n

In December 2024, U.S. law enforcement brought the mother and daughter back to the United States and arrested Ventura and Gonzales. The baby was reunited with her mother that day in Fresno.<\/p>\n

A federal grand jury charged Ventura and Gonzales on Jan. 21, 2025, with three kidnapping counts, including conspiracy to kidnap a minor. Both pleaded guilty on Feb. 23, 2026, to conspiracy to kidnapping involving a minor.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Investigations and the Fresno Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Veneman-Hughes and Cody S. Chapple prosecuted it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Two Fresno women were sentenced to decades in federal prison after prosecutors said they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-373315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}