"Toddler Jane" NUNEZ - 3 yo - New Bedford MA

A Rhode Island man kidnapped his 3-year-old
daughter and threatened to kill himself and the girl because he was
angry that the child's mother had been with another man, authorities said Friday.
After searching for him in
Pawtucket, R.I., state and local police arrested Luis Nunez, 22, around
3:20 a.m. Friday at his current girlfriend's house in Fall River, where
authorities also found the child unharmed.
Arraigned Friday in New Bedford District Court,
Nunez was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing on March 16. He
faces charges that include assault with a dangerous weapon, threatening
to commit a crime, reckless endangerment of a child and kidnapping.
The 3-year-old girl has been returned to the mother, who filed a restraining order against Nunez.
The mother told police that Nunez visited her house on Cedar Street around 1
a.m. to pick up their daughter. The mother helped Nunez install her car
seat inside his vehicle and went inside her house, prosecutors said.
While the mother was out of earshot, prosecutors said Nunez asked the girl
whether her mother had been with anyone that day. When the girl said her
mother had been with a man, Nunez became angry, his lawyer said.
"He got upset and things snowballed from there," defense attorney Sean A. McDermott said.
The girl's mother said Nunez punched her in the head several times, picked
up a rock and threatened to kill her. She ran into her house and heard
the rock strike her door. Nunez drove off and made several threatening
telephone calls, prosecutors said.
Nunez even texted the girl's mother that he was armed with a knife and would kill
himself and the girl, said Assistant District Attorney Marnie Peck.
Nunez denies assaulting the woman but his lawyer admits Nunez said "some
things that should not have been said." He said Nunez was angry because
the mother told him she would call police after they had a heated
argument. McDermott said Nunez threw a rock at the mother's house after
she had already gone inside.
"There was some jealousy. ... Things got overblown," McDermott said, adding that
authorities had "overcharged" his client. McDermott said he had no
indication that Nunez considered hurting himself or the child.
However, Peck said Nunez, who was allegedly intoxicated and holding the girl in
his arms, fought police officers who arrived at his girlfriend's house
at 220 Johnston St. in Fall River.
Police first searched for Nunez at his apartment in Pawtucket. Authorities also
issued an alert to law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for
the suspect's green 2001 Audi.
Massachusetts State Police began preparing for an AMBER Alert and was poised to deploy
the State Police Air Wing, authorities said.
Before the AMBER Alert was activated, detectives learned that Nunez was
possibly staying at his girlfriend's Fall River home, according to court documents.
Paramedics evaluated the child as a precaution and returned her to the mother, authorities said.