Milpitas Library Kidnapping Suspect Is Schizophrenic, Attorney Says

A man accused of kidnapping a 3-year-old boy from the Milpitas library earlier this month is schizophrenic and believed he was helping the boy, his attorney said Monday.

Police arrested 23-year-old Alfonso Edington on felony kidnapping charges. He and the boy he is accused of taking were spotted by an alert bus driver about an hour after the abduction, authorities said, but Edington’s defense attorney said her client believed he was helping the boy.

“He had just been diagnosed with schizophrenia and I don’t believe he was medicated,” said Santa Clara County Public Defender Nisreen Baroudi. “At the time he thought he knew the little boy. He had no intention of harming the little boy."

Baroudi said her client took the boy on a VTA bus to the BART station in Fremont because he planned to return the child to his mother in Antioch. The driver is credited with helping police arrest Edington.

"Right now, we are pursuing felony kidnaping charges,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Brandon Carrera. “If something changes after a mental evaluation we may consider it at that time.”

Edington could face 11 years in state prison if convicted of felony kidnapping, but his defense attorney said there is a possibility Edington could plead not guilty by reason of insanity when he returns to court in two months.

Court documents obtained by NBC Bay Area show Edington was arrested in downtown Los Gatos on February 25 for battery. Edington pleaded no contest to slugging a man in the face and was sentenced to two years of probation.

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