Love triangle, motive revealed in San Jose baby kidnapping

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — One of the accused kidnappers who snatched a baby from his grandmother’s home allegedly planned to keep the baby as her own, a police officer testified for a preliminary hearing Monday. The hearing revealed a motive for the first time behind a brazen and disturbing kidnapping on April 25, 2022.

Brandon Cuellar’s disappearance set off a frantic 20-hour search across San Jose before good Samaritans helped police find the 3-month-old infant. Police Chief Anthony Mata described the kidnapping as “every parent’s worst nightmare. ” Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez, 43, and Jose Ramon Portillo, 28, are charged with staging multiple kidnapping attempts while Baby Brandon’s mother was at work and grandmother was distracted.

San Jose Police Dept. Officer Eduardo Reyes testified in court Monday that Ramirez, her boyfriend Francisco Marquez, and her second boyfriend Portillo, were involved in a love triangle involving elaborate lies and cheating. Yesenia Ramirez listens in the courtroom on April 28, 2022.

(Pool photo by Bay Area News Group) Reyes interrogated Marquez at the police station on April 27, one day after Baby Brandon was found hidden and unharmed inside Portillo’s home at 3365 Mather Drive in San Jose. According to Marquez, Ramirez told him she was pregnant with his child and gave birth in March. Marquez said he moved into Ramirez’s home on April 23.

When he asked his girlfriend why their baby wasn’t anywhere to be found, she replied that the baby was still in the hospital. Ramirez showed Marquez photographs of Baby Brandon on her cellphone and claimed he was their baby, who they named Angel. “She said the baby was at the hospital receiving medical treatment, and that she was going to pick him up later two days later, on the 25th,” Reyes testified.

Ramirez and Marquez had been dating for four years in an “on-again, off-again” relationship, according to defense attorneys. Marquez told police that he knew his girlfriend often lied to him, but stayed with her because he was in love with her. On one occasion, Marquez returned home from a work-related trip early.

When he arrived at the front door, Portillo slammed the door shut in his face. “He caught her cheating, essentially?” a defense attorney asked Reyes. “Correct,” Reyes replied.

Jose Roman Portillo appears in court on April 28, 2022, in San Jose. (Dai Sugano /Bay Area News Group / POOL) Reyes said Ramirez also lied to Marquez about other fake pregnancies and fake children before the kidnapping incident. “He believed he had three children with Ms.

Ramirez. He believed he had twins with Ms. Ramirez, but he never saw the twins or met the twins,” Reyes testified.

Who’s who in the San Jose baby kidnapping When he confronted his girlfriend about the twins’ whereabouts, Ramirez told him a story claiming she was deported by immigration officials before she gave birth, Reyes testified. Ramirez explained that when she attempted to return to the U. S.

, she was injured in a vehicle accident and fell into a coma. Ramirez said CPS officials took custody of the children while she was in a coma, and the twins were adopted by another family, Reyes testified. Reyes said he found photographs of a baby in Ramirez’s phone.

When defense attorneys asked the officer if he could confirm that the baby was in fact Baby Brandon, Reyes replied, “To be honest, I don’t have any children. All children look alike to me. ” Baby Brandon (Image courtesy SJPD) Reyes testified that he showed the photographs to Baby Brandon’s mother, Jessica, and Jessica confirmed that she was the infant’s real mother.

Marquez had no idea that his girlfriend had kidnapped the infant — and wasn’t the infant’s mother at all — until he saw widespread media news headlines reporting the missing baby. “He was in shock. It was an awakening for him,” Reyes said of Marquez.

Ramirez and Portillo both appeared in the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice for Monday’s hearing wearing jail inmate clothing and listened to testimony through a Spanish language interpreter. Based on testimony from this week’s preliminary hearing, Judge Nona Klippen will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to move forward with a criminal trial. “There are few things more terrifying than someone stealing a child, as if they’re a car or wallet.

The more we investigate this case … the more troubling it gets,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. 3 kidnapping attempts targeted San Jose baby, prosecutors say Shortly after her baby was found safe, Brandon’s mother told KRON4 that she was overjoyed to have her baby back.   “My life is full of uncertainty.

I feel like I learned a huge lesson as a mother to not trust people. Because you can never truly know someone,” she told KRON4. Brandon was kidnapped from his grandmother’s Elm Street apartment on April 25 while his grandmother was busy unloading shopping bags from her car.

The grandmother alerted police. A neighbor’s security camera showed a mysterious man entering the apartment with an infant car seat and carrying the baby away. San Jose police immediately released the surveillance video to the public and media hoping that someone could identify the man.

Twenty hours later, a tip from witnesses helped police find Brandon inside Portillo’s home. Jose Portillo appears in court on April 28, 2022, in San Jose. (Dai Sugano / Bay Area News Group / POOL) Detectives later discovered that Ramirez had gone shopping with Brandon’s grandmother and baby just before the kidnapping.

While the two women were shopping, Ramirez exchanged text messages with Portillo notifying him of their activities and whereabouts, prosecutors said. Ramirez reportedly befriended Brandon’s mother and grandmother because they were members of the same church. Girl killed in San Jose church exorcism The April 25 kidnapping was the duo’s third attempt at kidnapping the infant, according to prosecutors.

During one of the failed attempts, Portillo posed as a fake Child Protective Services worker who demanded to take custody of the baby, according to investigators. Brandon’s family was suspicious of the man and refused to hand Brandon over. The preliminary hearing is still underway.

This breaking news story will be updated. Check back here for updates. Santa Clara County Hall Of Justice (KRON4 photo / Amy Larson).