Two human trafficking suspects face trial Monday for allegedly kidnapping a Brazilian woman and her young son and holding them ransom in Orange County.
The victims were being smuggled into the United States from South America and then held at a Costa Mesa motel, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a prepared statement.
Reynaldo Junior Eid, 52, and Alaor Docarmo Oliveira Jr., 57, were convicted in the 2005 case more than three years ago but a California Appeals Court overturned the conviction last year because of a jury instruction error.
“The trial itself was not in question,” said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. “The evidence was presented once before, and the jury unanimously convicted both defendants."
According to the DA's office, the 24-year-old woman and her 5-year-old son passed through numerous smugglers before getting picked up in Costa Mesa by Eid and Oliveira at a gas station.
Eid and Oliveira are accused of demanding an additional $14,000 to deliver the victims to the woman’s husband, a Brazilian national living illegally in Florida. The suspects allegedly threatened to take the victims to New York to work off their debt if the $14,000 went unpaid.
The suspects and victims were detained by police as they attempted to flee a Travelodge on Newport Boulevard, authorities said.
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-- Matt Stevens
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