Trio Pleads ‘No Contest’ to Kidnapping, Attempted Murder

Three suspects who reportedly bound two men, robbed them and threw them off a rural bridge in Gilroy last October pleaded “no contest” to their charges on Monday, according to documents from the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

The three will return to court for sentencing on July 11.

The two women and one man are accused of luring the victims to an apartment at 8800 Lilly Ct., where they stole several items and “beat them, threatened them with knives, threatened them with a gun and hit them with a baseball bat,” according to police reports.

They later bound the men in electrical tape and threw them off the bridge, according to police.

It was in the early morning of Oct. 25 that 23-year-old Catrina Cameron reportedly brought the two victims, Jose Hernandez and Fernando Aguilar, back to her apartment. Authorities say Tamaya Duenas, 24, and Nathaniel Garcia, 22, ambushed the victims upon arrival.

The suspects reportedly took several items, including thousands of dollars in jewelry, a watch and cell phones.

Using the victims’ truck, the suspects reportedly took the men to a local ATM and forced them to withdraw and hand over money.  They then bound and blindfolded the victims with electrical tape and threw them into a fifteen-foot-deep ravine in the Sprig Day Use Area off of Hecker Pass, police said.

The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including bruises, and Hernandez suffered a broken nose. After freeing themselves, the two made contact with police and indicated the location of the apartment where the incident reportedly began.

A team of SWAT officers entered the apartment later that day and found it empty. An investigation determined that the two women were to be at a Kinko’s store in San Jose, and a team of San Jose and Gilroy police officers arrested them that afternoon, police said.

A separate team in Gilroy observed Garcia, who was known to law enforcement, walking with his five-year-old son that afternoon. Officers watched as he entered a car with another man, and a group of SWAT members arrested the suspect at gunpoint while he sat near the intersection of Church Street and Lilly Court, police said. They reportedly found methamphetamine on him during the arrest.

Garcia’s wife told police that they were short $400 on rent, according to reports.

The three suspects each pleaded ‘no contest’ to multiple felony counts that included attempted murder, auto theft and kidnapping. They will be sentenced at the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill, 301 Diana Ave, at 9 a.m. July 11 in department 110.