Crime & Safety

Carjacker Convicted of Kidnapping Toddler

Written by City News 

A 35-year-old Mission Viejo man was convicted today of kidnapping, carjacking, burglary and resisting arrest for stealing a woman's SUV from her garage with her 2 1/2-year-old son and dog in the backseat, running over the pregnant victim's foot in the process.

James Christopher Corr, who is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4, faces 17 years to life in prison.

Lawrence Volk of the Orange County Public Defender's Office did not dispute much of the case against his client for stealing the vehicle and leading a neighbor on a chase the morning of Oct. 15, 2011, but he denied that his client committed a kidnapping.

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The boy's mother, an Aliso Viejo woman who was 30 weeks pregnant at the time, testified that she was getting ready to meet her husband, who had been running in Newport Beach, for breakfast about 7:45 a.m. when her son asked her for a cup of water.

The victim was overcome with emotion as she recalled dashing back into the house for 30 seconds to fill her son's "sippy cup." As she opened the door to the garage, "I saw a man was jumping into my car," she testified.

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The mother said she "rushed toward" the shirtless, tattooed man with a

shaved head and hurled the plastic cup at him. A scuffle ensued and the woman fell backward on her elbows.

"I kept on saying, 'Give me my baby please. Give me my baby. Take the car, whatever you want,'" she testified.

Asked how Corr responded, the woman testified that "he just smiled."

The woman frantically tried to get her son out of his car seat as Corr backed the Volvo out of the garage, running over one of her feet in the process, she testified. The family's Saint Bernard dog also was in the backseat.

Corr backed out so quickly that he damaged the SUV door next to the boy and left skid marks on the garage floor, Deputy District Attorney Aleta Bryant said.

Corr was unfamiliar with the neighborhood, so he drove around trying to find a route out of the area only to end up in a cul de sac. He turned the

Volvo around, got out and tried but failed to get the door to close, and, when neighbors started closing in on him, jumped back into the driver's seat and sped off, Bryant said.

One of the neighbors gave chase in her vehicle, "honking the horn like crazy," Bryant said. Corr "blew through a red light," and his pursuer did, as well, the prosecutor added.

Corr "bailed out" near Da Vinci and Medici with the vehicle ending up on a curb, still in drive with the door hanging open and the toddler and dog still inside, Bryant said.

Corr ran and, at one home, tried to pry open a sliding glass door. When was eventually caught, police said they seized evidence from a vehicle break-in in Mission Viejo -- a crime reported shortly before he took the SUV.

Corr's DNA was on a wallet containing $42 and papers taken from the earlier vehicle break-in and the victim, Bryan said, adding that witnesses identified Corr in line-ups.

The boy was OK, but his mother was cut and bruised, Bryant said.

Corr was convicted of second-degree burglary, first-degree burglary, carjacking, first-degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon likely to produce great bodily injury, kidnapping for carjacking, child abuse and endangerment, hit-and-run with injury, vandalism, kidnapping a child younger than 14 and kidnapping, all felonies. He was also convicted of misdemeanor resisting arrest.

Jurors, who deliberated for about 2 1/2 days, split 6-6 on a child
stealing charge, prompting a mistrial on that count.

Corr has a prior conviction for a hit-and-run in Nevada in 2005 that
will factor into his sentence.


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