Taking a child from one place to another without consent is charged as Second Degree Kidnapping in Greeley and Weld County. A woman is facing this serious felony crime after she took a 6-year-old boy from an art gallery. According to the report, the woman was in the gallery and was asked to leave. As she was going, she grabbed the arm of the 6-year-old boy and said he was her family. This did not sit well with the gallery owner, so he followed them out and asked the boy if he knew her. He said he did not, and the gallery owner grabbed the boy and contacted police. Surveillance footage was used to identify the woman and she was subsequently arrested.
Greeley Kidnapping Lawyer: Definition of Second Degree Kidnapping from Art Gallery
The Weld, Morgan, and Logan County, Colorado law definition of Second Degree Kidnapping – C.R.S. 18-3-302 – is:
(2) Any person who takes, entices, or decoys away any child not his own under the age of eighteen years with intent to keep or conceal the child from his parent or guardian or with intent to sell, trade, or barter such child for consideration commits second degree kidnapping.
The woman would likely be charged under subsection (2) for taking the child with the intent of keeping him from his parents.
Sentence for Art Gallery Kidnapping in Fort Morgan and Sterling
In Greeley, Fort Morgan, and Sterling, Second Degree Kidnapping is a class 4 felony unless aggravating factors exist. Things that would aggravate a Second Degree Kidnapping charge to a class 3 or class 2 felony are:
- The person kidnapped is a victim of a sexual offense;
- The person kidnapped is a victim of a robbery
- The kidnapping is accomplished with intent to sell, trade, or barter the victim; or
- The kidnapping is accomplished by the use of a deadly weapon, an article used to represent a deadly weapon, or the person verbally states that they have a deadly weapon.