Police: Kidnapping a hoax / Ogden officials seek fleeing fiancee, her sister (Standard Examiner)

Police: Kidnapping a hoax / Ogden officials seek fleeing fiancee, her sister

By Tim Gurrister and Charles F. Trentelman (Standard-Examiner staff )

Last Edit: Sep 3 2009 - 11:09pm

OGDEN -- Fernando Deleon-Barrios remained in Weber County Jail on Thursday night, even though the child kidnapping charge against him was thrown out as a hoax.

Meanwhile, his fiancee who authorities say masterminded his arrest Saturday in an Ogden hotel with a half-naked 11-year-old girl, was believed headed back to Los Angeles to a home she once shared with Barrios.

The two were to be married in December.

"Whether this was her way of getting out of a marriage she didn't want to participate in, or some other motive, I don't know," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said at a news conference on the 2nd District Courthouse lawn Thursday.

Moments earlier, in a fourth-floor courtroom, the charge against Barrios had been dismissed.

He faced 15 years to life in prison. Now he faces possible deportation and is still in jail on a federal immigration hold as a possible illegal alien.

Barrios, 51, was the victim of a plot engineered by his fiancee, Rosalina Urrutia, 28, and her sister Carmen, 29, Smith announced.

Also sought was the 11-year-old's aunt, Maria Osorio, 40, arrested in Ogden as the news conference was under way.

All three face likely charges of felony witness tampering, criminal defamation and giving false information to a police officer.

The maximum they would face if convicted is up to five years in prison.

Police were initially told Barrios had lured the girl to the Ogden Days Inn, 3306 Washington Blvd., after he met her at a nearby park.

Turns out, Smith explained, it was Barrios lured to the hotel by his fiancee, Osorio, the 11-year-old and others in a group at the park.

Smith said the conspirators arranged for Barrios to be alone in a room at the hotel with the young girl, who had been instructed to take her shirt off.

They had a woman they picked out at the hotel call 911 about an older man taking an upset 11-year-old to a room, and police arrived a short time later.

The 11-year-old's parents knew nothing of the plot and never met Barrios, Smith said, but the girl and her aunt, Osorio, were each offered $500 for their part, then paid $100 each, by the Urrutia sisters.

Smith said police learned after the news conference that the Urrutia sisters likely left for Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

Their scheme had begun to unravel as the 11-year-old's story fell apart during questioning earlier Wednesday.

"I'm extremely upset about this, that our system can be manipulated like that," Smith said to the assembled media.

"I've never heard of a case quite like this, to go to this extent to bring in an 11-year-old girl."

Smith credited Ogden police major crimes Detective Tim Scott with following up on what he felt were inconsistencies in the 11-year-old's account that led him to interview her a second time Wednesday at the Children's Justice Center.

"Tim's the one who broke the case," Smith said.

The 11-year-old "was manipulated by the adults, coached and we believe even coerced," Smith said in an interview. "I don't foresee filing charges against her."

The name of the woman who called 911 was not released, but Smith said she had been located and interviewed as recently as Thursday morning, but had not been taken into custody.

Her case is still being reviewed, he said, but charges aren't likely.

Meanwhile, Smith said officials at the Salt Lake City office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not yet been notified that the criminal charge against Barrios has been dismissed.

What that office does with their immigration hold remains to be seen, he said.

"It's out of our jurisdiction, but I assume he will be deported, although it's not automatic."