Cielo Vista Mall kidnapper sentenced to 7 years in prison
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Victor Hugo Escobedo, 53, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping a woman and her daughter at gunpoint in the Cielo Vista Mall parking lot and forcing the mother to withdraw thousands of dollars from a bank.
A spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office says that Escobedo pleaded guilty to Aggravated Robbery and two counts of Aggravated Kidnapping with a Deadly Weapon.
Court documents state that El Paso police were called to the mall on September 6, 2024, after the victim had been in the parking lot with her two-year-old daughter when Escobedo walked up and forced them into her car at gunpoint. He got in too and ordered the woman to drive to a nearby bank and threatened to kill her and her child if she didn’t withdraw $5,300 in cash. After complying with his demands, she later reported the incident to police.
Investigators were able to identify Escobedo using fingerprints lifted from the victim’s truck, the DA's Office says. Those fingerprints matched records from a prior case in Albuquerque, New Mexico, officials say. He was arrested at his home roughly a week after the incident.
