5:31pm | The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday afternoon that a Long Beach man received the maximum sentence after pleading no contest to kidnapping charges as part of a plea deal.
Gladimir Jesus Gamez, 25, abducted his 3-year-old son in January after assaulting the toddler’s mother outside her Long Beach home, prosecutors said.
Deanne Castorena, deputy-in-charge of the Child Abduction Section, said Gamez pleaded to one felony count each of kidnapping and corporal injury to a child’s parent.
Gamez had also faced one count each of child abduction and grant theft person, but these two charges were dropped as part of a plea deal, said Shiara Davila-Morales, a DA’s Office spokeswoman.
Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gary Ferrari immediately sentenced Gamez to the maximum possible sentence of eight years in state prison. Because kidnapping is a “strike” offense, the defendant will serve 85 percent of his sentence, the prosecutor said.