SEATTLE — A man who fled to Mexico during a kidnapping investigation in 1995 and was arrested when he returned to the United States in December, has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Sisto Molina, 47, formerly of Pasco, one of four men linked by investigators to the two-week abduction, was sentenced late last week by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour.
The others — Francisco Rodriguez, Jorge Perez Garza and Javier Ochoa, also known as Javier Pena — were sentenced in 1995 to prison terms ranging from 14 years to 16 years and seven months. Ochoa pleaded guilty one day into a trial and the other two were convicted by a jury.
During that trial, the victim’s brother testified that Molina and his brother, Alfonso Molina, was trying to obtain money for cocaine that the four had supplied to him. Alfonso Molina pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.
Molina was arrested last December at the airport in Tucson, Ariz., shortly after he arrived on a flight from Mexico.
Five men arrested with teen-age girl: Five Seattle-area men have been arrested after being found in a motel room with a teen-age girl after police were told a naked woman had been chased through the parking lot. Four men from Kirkland and one from Kenmore, ranging in age from 18 to 20, were booked into the Kittitas County Jail for investigation of second-degree rape, possession of alcohol by minors and providing liquor to a minor, police Capt. Ross Green said. One was also being held for investigation for marijuana possession, a jail official said. Two Kirkland men posted bail of $30,500 and $30,250, respectively. The other three remained in jail late Sunday. No information on the girl’s condition was available late Sunday. According to Green, about 3 a.m. Sunday, a witness reported hearing a woman screaming and seeing a naked woman being chased by several men through the parking lot of the Thunderbird Motel and Restaurant. When officers arrived, a witness directed them to a room in which they found the five men and the girl. Officers concluded the girl had been assaulted. Green said the case remained under investigation.
Orthopedic doctors turn away from hospital: Children who get seriously injured on weekends in the Tacoma region could be forced to travel to Seattle for surgery on broken bones. Most of Tacoma’s orthopedic surgeons have severed their ties with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Center, a regional trauma center that treats patients as far away as Grays Harbor and Yakima. The surgeons, who repair mangled or deformed bones and joints, say their schedules have become overloaded since a new trauma system for adults was launched in Tacoma a year ago. Mary Bridge now has no orthopedists on call half the time — mainly nights and weekends — to help treat emergency-room patients, said Dr. Ted Walkley, Mary Bridge medical director. Administrators say the defections could imperil the hospital’s trauma program, which treats youngsters from 13 counties. "That would mean every single seriously injured child would have to leave the community and be cared for in Seattle," Walkley said.
Two hurt as deck collapses: A deck collapsed under the weight of about 100 people during a large house party, and two were hospitalized, police said. Constable Ed Pearce said officers were told shortly after 10:30 p.m. Saturday that a wooden deck had buckled, plunging some partygoers 13 feet to the ground. "The glass shattered and there were lacerations to a number of the guests who fell," Pearce said. "The party was not out of control," he added. "The house wasn’t getting trashed or anything like that." One party guest was treated at the scene for minor injuries and two others were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police Sgt. Stewart Nowacki said. Owners of the home could not be reached for comment.
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