Prosecutor: Madera woman plotted torture of teen after ‘Prince Charming’ dumped her

Sandra Garcia, testifying Monday in her trial on kidnapping and torture charges, considered her Swedish boyfriend her Prince Charming because he was all the things she was hoping for in a partner.

But Garcia’s hopes of a fairy tale relationship came crashing down when the boyfriend, who she met on Match.com, wanted her out of his 4,440-square-foot home in northeast Clovis.

Garcia, and her two young sons, moved into the spacious home in 2016, several months after dating the boyfriend, who also had two daughters.

Testifying in a quiet voice, the 48-year-old Garcia said she was angry and hurt over being told leave.

Her attorney, Woodrow Nichols, said Garcia was raised in a dysfunctional home in Madera where abuse was common. She alleged she was sexually molested by a trusted adult when she was 11 or 12 years old.

Garcia had two boys during her first marriage that ended amid complaints of domestic violence. She would have two more boys by different fathers, but neither relationship lasted.

Nichols said Garcia came to distrust men but still longed for a romantic relationship. After meeting her Swedish boyfriend on the dating app, Garcia felt she finally found the perfect partner.

That’s why Nichols said she reacted so strongly after the relationship ended.

She “flipped out,” he said. “She had no place to go, she had sold her car and she couldn’t move back to her mother’s house because there were too many people living there.”

In a moment of frustration, Garcia said she turned to her second cousin, Miguel Carriedo, to vent.

Prosecutor Adam Christopherson said it was more than that and really the beginning of a torture and kidnapping plot.

In several explosive recorded telephone conversations, secretly recorded by Carriedo, the two discussed getting back at the boyfriend and his daughters.

“I was angry and felt betrayed and upset with the girls,” Garcia testified. “There were things being said about me that were not true. But I was just venting.”

In those recorded calls, Garcia tells Carriedo that she wanted to “scare the hell out of the girls” so they would move to Sweden with their mother. They talked about kidnapping the girls from their home and taking them to a remote area. To add to the terror, Garcia suggested ripping the girls clothes off.

Carriedo recently testified that he listened to Garcia because she promised to connect him with a paralegal who could help him with a custody dispute involving his two sons. She never did.

Carriedo has since agreed to a plea agreement with prosecutors. In exchange, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 15-years-to-life.

Under cross examination by Christopherson, Garcia said she tried to stop the plot, but Carriedo wouldn’t listen and went ahead with the kidnapping that also involved two of her sons, Mark Anthony Roque, who remains a co-defendant, and Brandon Roque, who pleaded no contest to conspire to commit a crime.

Several times during her testimony, Garcia dismissed her damaging comments on the recorded phone calls as venting or being spiteful and angry. She did not intend for anyone to be hurt, she said.

Police said that after the victim was kidnapped by force, she was taken to the foothills where she was tied to a tree, hit in the face and sexually assaulted.

Mark Anthony Roque, 25, chose not to testify Monday. He and his mother are charged with conspiring to commit a crime, sexual penetration by force, kidnapping, torture and dissuading a witness by force. If convicted on all counts, they face life in prison.

The trial is expected to conclude this week.