In addition to accusations that he prompted an Amber Alert by grabbing nine-year-old Calysta Cordova, who escaped, he's been charged in a second sex assault on a child.
Cordova, who's being identified because her family made her available for a 7News interview, reportedly vanished en route from Columbian Elementary School to her Pueblo home this past Thursday afternoon, prompting her mom to report her missing around 3:30 p.m.
Early the next morning, cops issued an Amber Alert. However, Cordova's subsequent rescue appears to have occurred through a combination of intervening fate and her considerable moxie. Garcia's truck broke down in the Colorado Springs area, and the pair were given a ride to a nearby Circle K by a good Samaritan who did not recognize her. Cordova than raced into the convenience store ahead of Garcia and asked the clerk to use the phone -- a request that was granted due in part to her condition. She had two black eyes, a split lip and appeared to be disoriented.Fortunately, she was more together than she seemed. Although she told the staffer she needed to contact her uncle, she instead dialed 911. And then, when Garcia stepped into the store and ordered her to accompany him, she refused. After getting the thousand-mile-stare from witnesses inside, and learning that Cordova had already alerted authorities, he split, but he didn't get far. Later that day, he was nabbed walking near a bus depot a few miles from the Circle K.
In the hours that followed, another finger was pointed at Garcia -- this one attached to a woman who said she was his ex-girlfriend of four years. According to her, her ten-year-old daughter "says that he took her out and took her to his house and he was drunk," she told KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs. "And he started groping her and touching her inappropriately. So right then and there I contacted law enforcement."
Turns out that this girl lived on the same block as Cordova.
At this point, Garcia, who has a number of past arrests involving driving under the influence and property crimes, is under investigation for multiple counts involving kidnapping and sexual assault. Look below to see his driver's license photo, his mug shot and a report from 9News.
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More from our Colorado Crimes archive: "Richard Carl Heeringa, molester and one of U.S. Marshal's 15 most wanted, captured in Michigan."