A judge sentenced a Chicago man to a work release program after he admitted he kidnapped and beat his ex-girlfriend in Hammond.
Reyes Tinoco, 24, signed a plea deal Aug. 22 admitting to Level 5 felony kidnapping and misdemeanor domestic battery. He faced up to four years in prison.
He is sentenced to 18 months in the Lake County Community Corrections in the Kimbrough Release Work Program with the option to transfer to home detention earlier with good behavior. He serves another 2.5 years on probation. He is required to do a batterer’s intervention and mental health programs.
During Thursday’s hearing, the case’s victim pleaded on the stand for him to avoid a prison term, saying she needed Tinoco to help with their children.
“I do not support throwing away his life,” she said.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar asked for two years in prison and two on probation with requirements for mental health, substance abuse and domestic batterer intervention programs. While Tinoco didn’t have a lengthy criminal record, he refused to enroll in a drug-treatment program, Balcazar said.
Defense lawyer Dan Tsataros said Tinoco had made strides to improve his life, including working toward a commercial driver’s license. His client hadn’t done anything to her since, he said.
“(Otherwise, she) would not be here today,” Tsataros said.
Tinoco said he was on “hard” drugs — ecstasy for the first time — when he kidnapped her.
“Obviously, it’s a big deal,” Tinoco nervously told Judge Natalie Bokota. “I was under the influence.”
He didn’t want to do rehab, because he wasn’t an addict.
“I feel like I do not deserve jail time,” he said. “I’m just sorry to everybody I hurt.”
Bokota appeared to reject his contrition.
The victim said earlier on the stand that she couldn’t afford her child’s quinceañera, because she was paying legal fees.
“(That) is your fault,” Bokota told Tinoco.
The kidnapping was “violent and brutal,” she said. “You choose to take drugs and put yourself in those circumstances.”
Tinoco was a “rule breaker” who wasn’t taking responsibility for his actions, the judge said.
When she started giving her sentence — four years in the Indiana Department of Correction — Tinoco’s loved ones started to cry. A woman in the audience apologized to a bailiff who threatened to kick her out. Bokota finished her sentence — the prison term was suspended, with his actual sentence.
Hammond Police were called at 3:36 p.m. May 15, 2021 to McDonald’s, 4615 Calumet Ave., where a man had been punching a woman in the drive-thru, employees said in court records.
Officers tracked down the orange car with a partial Illinois license plate number to a nearby KFC, it said. They pulled it over after it left the drive-thru.
The woman driver jumped out of her car and ran to police screaming for help, the affidavit states. She told police that her ex-boyfriend, Tinoco, was beating and holding her against her will, it said.
As they were talking, Tinoco jumped in the driver seat and drove off, records state.
The woman told police they were in an on-and-off relationship and had two children. Tinoco went to the woman’s home in Chicago around 1 p.m. that day, getting into a physical fight with her father and brother, she said.
Tinoco allegedly tried to hit her father and brother with a car before taking off, according to the affidavit. The ex-girlfriend’s family called Chicago Police.
Tinoco called the woman at 3 p.m., saying he was hiding at his sister’s house and asked her to pick him up. While there, he asked her to take him to a house in Hammond, documents state.
When they arrived in Indiana, they started arguing and Tinoco pulled a pocket knife, threatening to kill her, the woman said. He punched her in the head several times and took away her cellphone, charges allege.
When he told her to pull into the McDonald’s, she tried to ask the employees through the drive-thru for help, the affidavit states. He resumed punching her and threatened her again with the knife, telling her to keep driving, it said.
They went through a KFC, but he couldn’t pay for the food so they left, then were pulled over by police on the street, charges state.
Patrol officers briefly chased Tinoco in the orange sedan then lost sight of him. Shortly after the chase, an officer saw a man fitting Tinoco’s description walking away from the orange car parked on 126th Street. He was bleeding and a black pocket knife was later found in the car, documents state.
mcolias@post-trib.com
