By Associated Press on Wed, Jun 19, 2013
POSTED: 7:08 am

An 8-year-old girl says she bit an alleged kidnapper and she lost a fingernail in a struggle until a witness chased her snatcher’s van down and rescued her.

KRQE News 13 reports that the girl told jurors Tuesday that the man grabbed her from a sidewalk while walking home from a neighbor’s house with tostada shells in 2011.

The girl testified in the kidnapping trial of 31-year-old Philip Garcia. Prosecutors say Garcia kidnapped the girl and fled the scene then later returned claiming that he had been carjacked and hit over the head.

Neighbor 26-year-old Antonio Diaz Chacon said he saw it happen and chased Garcia’s van until it crashed into a mesa.

His actions garnered him national attention and offers of gifts and money.

4:15pm 6/18/13 — Trial of NM man in national kidnapping case set

By The Associated Press

A New Mexico man is standing trial on charges from a kidnapping that was thwarted by a witness who chased the child snatcher’s van down and rescued the 6-year-old girl.

Jury selection continued Tuesday in the case of Phillip Garcia, 31, who is charged with kidnapping, child abuse and reckless driving.

He grabbed the girl as she walked home from a neighbor’s house in a southwest Albuquerque mobile home park in 2011, prosecutors said.

Neighbor Antonio Diaz Chacon, 26, said he saw it happen and chased Garcia’s van until it crashed into a mesa as the van was heading into the desert.

The suspect ran away and Chacon rescued the girl. His actions garnered him national attention and offers of gifts and money. He later told The Associated Press later that he was living in the country without legal permission.

Chacon is married to an American and has been in the country for four years. But he said he abandoned attempts to get legal residency because the process was difficult and expensive.

Chacon’s story galvanized immigrant advocates in New Mexico at the time who said he was an example of the kind of immigrant the federal government would leave alone.

The Department of Homeland Security did not pursue deportation proceeds against Chacon. Officials later said agents would focus largely on those suspected of being in the country illegal who have been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Others used his story to attack New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s ongoing attempts to repeal a state law that allows immigrants in the country without permission to obtain a state driver’s license.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/21218...idnap-try.html