A Miami-Dade family says they are still reeling after the man who abducted their 6-year-old son in northwest Miami-Dade agreed to a plea deal that will put him in state prison for only three years. The boy, Jake Rivera, was taken from outside his home in late 2024 and later found safe after his older brother raced out and pulled him away from the suspect. The defendant pleaded guilty to kidnapping and interference with custody and will be under probation for 10 years after he finishes his prison time.
The plea and sentence
On Friday, the defendant accepted a deal that calls for a three-year state prison sentence followed by a decade of probation, according to NBC 6 South Florida. In a close-out memo provided to the station, Assistant State Attorney Lily Wisset wrote that prosecutors offered the plea because they expected "significant challenges in proving" key kidnapping elements, including whether the defendant forcibly or secretly took the child or intended to commit a felony or terrorize him.
The memo also notes that a psychosexual evaluation found the defendant did not display sexual interest in children. The court ordered mental-health and substance-abuse evaluations and mandated treatment if needed. Prosecutors framed the deal as an attempt to lock in a conviction and supervision within the limits of what they believed a jury was likely to find beyond a reasonable doubt.
How the abduction unfolded
Surveillance video and police reports show the man approaching then-6-year-old Jake outside his home in the 1300 block of Northwest 79th Street, casually joining him to kick a soccer ball around. Investigators say he then offered to buy the boy a toy to win his trust and walked him away from the neighborhood.
The two went to a Family Dollar at 2151 NW 79th St. When Jake's older brother realized the child was missing, he and a family friend set out to search for him, eventually spotting the pair more than a mile away and pulling Jake back to safety. CBS Miami reported the original arrest details and timeline of the incident.
Why prosecutors say they offered the deal
In court and in the close-out memo, prosecutors said they were worried about hitting the legal bar for a kidnapping conviction under Florida law. The state would have had to prove that the defendant "forcibly or secretly" took the child, or that he acted with one of several specific intents spelled out in the statute, such as committing a felony or terrorizing the victim.
Florida's kidnapping statute defines the crime as "forcibly, secretly, or by threat confining, abducting, or imprisoning another person" with certain required intents. That language can make trial work tricky in cases where there is little obvious physical force, even if the behavior looks terrifying to parents. The full text of the law is available in Florida Statutes, Chapter 787.
Family outraged
The Rivera family says all of that legal nuance does nothing to calm their nerves. Jake's grandmother, Aurora Velasquez, told NBC 6 South Florida she vehemently disagrees with the outcome and was especially upset that the family first heard about the plea deal from the TV station instead of directly from prosecutors.
"How are they going to let that man back out on the street?" she asked. A cousin, Alfredo Velasquez, said relatives had hoped for deportation or a much harsher sentence to send a message. The family says they are still shaken by what happened and want stronger protections for neighborhood kids so another family does not end up in their position.
Immigration and what comes next
Because the defendant is not a U.S. citizen, his conviction could open the door to federal immigration proceedings. Under federal law, certain violent offenses and other felonies can trigger removal, and legal references note that felony convictions often carry serious immigration fallout. Those definitions are laid out in 8 U.S.C. § 1101 and related guidance on immigration consequences for felony cases.
Any potential deportation case would be handled by federal immigration authorities on a separate track from the state prosecution. For now, the plea wraps up the local criminal case, but the Rivera family and their neighbors say the three-year sentence leaves them on edge as they wait to see if federal officials step in. Prosecutors, for their part, maintain that they weighed the evidence carefully and crafted the deal to balance accountability with what they thought they could actually prove to a Miami-Dade jury.
