Apple Valley Man, 25, Accused of Grabbing Toddler, Assaulting Mother in Parking Lot

A 25-year-old Apple Valley man is facing kidnapping and assault suspicions after San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies say he took a 2-year-old child from a vehicle, assaulted the child's mother, and then ran off from a nearby business. Nathaniel Jordan was arrested Wednesday and is being held at High Desert Detention Center in lieu of $80,000 bail.

According to VVNG, Apple Valley Station deputies responded around 12:27 p.m. Wednesday to a business near Bear Valley Road and Kiowa Road after reports of a disturbance. Deputies say Jordan had been involved in an argument with the mother of the 2-year-old, a 24-year-old Victorville woman, before he took the child from a vehicle and assaulted the mother. Jordan then fled the scene on foot, per the same account.

The child was returned to the mother and recovered safely, and authorities say the toddler was unharmed. Deputies located Jordan a short time later at his Apple Valley residence, the outlet reports, and he was known to both victims. He was booked on suspicion of kidnapping, injury to a spouse or cohabitant, child endangerment, and criminal threats.

Serious Felony Suspicions Carry Strike Consequences

The kidnapping suspicion Jordan faces stems from California Penal Code Section 207, which classifies simple kidnapping as a felony punishable by three, five, or eight years in state prison and as a violent felony strike under California's Three Strikes law, according to FindLaw. Simple kidnapping requires moving a victim a substantial distance using force or fear without consent. The criminal threats suspicion, under Penal Code Section 422, can be charged as a felony carrying up to three years in prison, per the Shouse Law Group.

The injury-to-a-cohabitant suspicion falls under Penal Code Section 273.5, a wobbler offense that can be charged as a felony carrying up to four years in state prison or as a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail, according to the Law Offices of Ryan P. McClure. The statute defines a traumatic condition as a wound or internal or external injury caused by physical force, regardless of severity. The child endangerment suspicion, under Penal Code Section 273a, is also a wobbler that can bring up to six years in state prison if the circumstances were likely to produce great bodily harm or death, according to Eisner Gorin LLP, which notes the statute applies even when a child is not actually physically injured.

A Busy Corridor, A Familiar Booking Site

The intersection of Bear Valley Road and Kiowa Road sits in one of Apple Valley's busiest commercial hubs, seeing more than 43,000 vehicles a day, according to Crexi. Bear Valley Road functions as the main east-west commercial corridor connecting Apple Valley and Victorville.

Apple Valley has contracted its municipal policing to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department since incorporating as a town in 1988, maintaining an Apple Valley Station staffed by 51 sworn officers and 13 general employees, per the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Jordan was booked into High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, which opened in 2006 as the county's first Type II jail facility in the High Desert region and holds more than 2,100 pre-trial and sentenced inmates.

This is the latest in a string of domestic-violence-related arrests reported across the High Desert in recent weeks. Just three days earlier, Hoodline reported that a Pacoima man led deputies on a truck-to-dirt-bike chase through Apple Valley after allegedly breaking a window at his ex-wife's home in violation of a restraining order. Earlier this month, a Victorville man was arrested near Palmdale Road after allegedly pointing a loaded handgun at a woman during a domestic dispute, and he too was booked into High Desert Detention Center.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department described the investigation in a written statement, and it remains unclear whether the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office has filed formal charges against Jordan, what his exact relationship is to the mother, or whether a protective order has been issued. Anyone with information is asked to contact sheriff's dispatch at (760) 956-5001 or the Apple Valley Police Station at (760) 240-7400. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to the We-Tip hotline at 844-909-3006 or by texting the word REPORT to that same number.