Man Who Took Car With Child Inside Pleads Guilty to Vehicle Theft, Eluding

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Former Yakima City Council candidate Kenton Gartrell wanted the man accused of kidnapping his infant daughter and stealing his wife's sport-utility vehicle to get substance abuse treatment.

But instead, Juan Carlos Ceja chose to spend more than a year in prison for stealing the vehicle and leading police on an almost 30-mile high-speed chase.

"We would have preferred more rehabilitation because there would be less help (in prison)," Gartrell said in an interview Wednesday. However, he's grateful that the case has been resolved.

Ceja, a 34-year-old Hermiston, Ore., resident, pleaded guilty to taking a motor vehicle without permission and eluding police during a hearing in Yakima County Superior Court Wednesday. Judge David Elofson sentenced him to 14 months and one day in prison, with credit for the time he spent in the Yakima County jail.

In return for the plea, prosecutors dropped an attempted second-degree kidnapping charge.

Ceja was accused of stealing a running car parked outside the post office on West Washington Avenue with 1-year-old Freya Gartrell, Gartrell's daughter, inside her car seat May 29.

Yakima police said Gartrell's wife, Izamar, left the SUV running with the child asleep in her car seat while she went into the post office shortly before 10 a.m., according to court documents. When she came out a minute later, the vehicle and her child were missing.

"(Ceja) found himself up here basically destitute, He was on the streets, trying to figure out how to get back to his home in Oregon, and this opportunity presented itself, and he made an incredibly bad choice," defense attorney Jeffrey B. West, said at the sentencing here. "When he realized there was a child in the car, I think he had a moment of sublime panic, and that in turn led him to make some bad choices when the officers tried to pull him over 70 miles down the road."

Freya was found by her father in an alley near the Pepp'rmint Stick restaurant in Union Gap, where Ceja had left her after realizing she was in the vehicle, court documents said. It was believed that the child had been there for an hour.

After an Amber Alert had been issued, someone spotted the SUV in Sunnyside shortly before 11 a.m. and called 911. A Yakima County sheriff's deputy and a Grandview police officer attempted to stop Ceja on Interstate 82, according to court documents.

Ceja sped off, reaching speeds of 110 mph, evading spike strips and forcing other vehicles to swerve out of his way before finally stopping near Benton City, court documents said.



Ceja said he was "remorseful" for what he put Gartrell's family through.

"I would never have done that if I knew a child was in the car," Ceja told Elofson. "Mistakes like that I am never going to make again. I don't want to be here in the situation I got myself into."

"It sounds like you are not as bad as the paperwork makes you sound," Elofson said.

Gartrell said Ceja was given the option of getting treatment for a drug problem and doing community service, which would have given him less time in custody, or just going to prison, and he chose the latter.

Deputy Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Julia Davis said Gartrell and his family wanted Ceja to get treatment so this wouldn't happen to another family.

"It sounds like they are very understanding," Elofson said.

West said Ceja recognizes he needs treatment but was wanting to get back to his family in Oregon, and decided to go with the option of prison instead.

Ceja told Elfoson that at the time he took the vehicle, he was trying to get help, but being new to Yakima he didn't know where to go or who to ask.

Elofson urged Ceja to get treatment, even though he could not order him to do so.

"(Gartrell's) family is probably going to have to carry this scar for the rest of their lives," Elofson said. "Get treatment, or you're going to do something dumb again."

Gartrell unsuccessfully ran for Yakima City Council in 2019 and lost a bid for a seat on the Yakima School Board in 2021.