South Phila. Kidnapper, Undone By Video and Defiant Victim, is Sentenced
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The brazen crimes of the defendant and the courage of his little victim took focus today at a sentencing in a case described as a parent's worst nightmare.
Today, Carlos Figueroa-Fagot was sentenced to 17-34 years in prison for a 2011 attack in South Philadelphia on a ten-year-old girl and her toddler brother.
It was a horror caught on surveillance video (see related stories). The victim's mother told the judge in the case that those pictures are now a permanent memory in their minds and hearts.
Figueroa-Fagot tried to kidnap the girl, who was walking with her toddler brother at the time. But the two young children were anything but helpless. The girl fought back and her little brother screamed, scaring off the attacker.
Their mother says she will be forever proud of them.
"What she did and what he did definitely, definitely saved both their lives. My son would have been left on the street by himself if that man had been successful in taking her," she told KYW Newsradio today.
And as the sentencing ended, Judge Alice Dubow personally addressed the little victim, praising her courage and expressing the hope that that courage will continue to serve her as she tries to deal with the traumatic aftermath of this crime.
