OGDEN — Police say Angel Marie Jasso took a car with an infant inside, and then picked up her friend Roddy Mike Montes before the two left the child on a random porch miles away in Plain City in Weber County.
Police affidavits filed for the arrests of Montes, 20, and Jasso, 34, offer new details into the incident that sparked Wednesday’s Amber Alert in Ogden.
On Thursday, both were charged in 2nd District Court with child kidnaping, a first-degree felony; theft, a second-degree felony; failing to stop at the command police for fleeing in a car, a third-degree felony; and failing to stop for law enforcement for running away, a class A misdemeanor. Montes was also booked for an additional count of damaging a police car or jail, a third-degree felony.
The dramatic events started about 10:45 a.m. when Breesha Spratley left her car running in a driveway in the 200 West block of Patterson Street in Ogden while she went inside to talk to an acquaintance. Her daughter, Amila Spratley-Apke, 10 months old, was in the back in a car seat. But another adult in the car then decided to also go inside the house, according to police.
That’s when Jasso got inside the vehicle and drove off.
“Angel admitted to knowing she should have called police to return the child,” according to the affidavit.
Instead, she went to Montes’ house and told him “she had stolen a car and there was a child in it,” according to the affidavit.
But instead of calling police, Montes got into the car and the two continued driving, the affidavit states. It wasn’t until they got to Plain City that they put Amila on a random front porch, still strapped to her car seat, where two women found her nearly two hours after the Amber Alert was issued.
Mindy Michelle and her sister, Tiffany Bingham, had seen the Amber Alert issued Wednesday.
“I was just bawling because I felt so drawn to this Amber Alert,” said Bingham.
The two women wanted to do something to help. And then, they spotted the car without a license plate in their neighborhood. Michelle “knew” it was the one police were looking for.
“I don’t know how, but I knew that that was the car, and I knew she was in this neighborhood,” Michelle said. After calling 911, she and her sister began searching for the baby on their own.
After searching for a little bit, they decided to stay quiet for a moment and just listen. And that’s when they heard Amila crying.
Michelle said she “just ran toward that sound.”
“I just grabbed the car seat, and I picked her up,” Michelle said, “and I said, ‘Hi, baby!’”
Bingham burst into tears while her sister picked up the infant.
“She was fine, other than she needed a diaper change,” Bingham said.
Jasso and Montes were later arrested following a chase with police, which came to an end thanks in part to the Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter.
Jasso is “admittedly mentally ill and off of her medications,” according to the affidavit.
After Montes was taken into custody, he “kicked out a window of a police vehicle, shattering it,” the affidavit states.
Both were booked into the Weber County Jail.
Montes is also charged in another case with three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, a class A misdemeanor, a case that was filed after his 15-year-old girlfriend gave birth to a child, according to charging documents. He also pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drug possession and was placed on probation, court records state, and pleaded guilty to theft in February.
Amila was reunited with her mother, who was emotional in thanking Michelle and Bingham.
“I really appreciate you guys being there and being a good place for her to be,” Spratley said. “That’s really awesome, that there’s good people out there still.”
Contributing: Amy Donaldson