MAN, 19, SENTENCED FOR TAKING GIRL, 13

PFMLIT ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, DEATH PENALTY FOR SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, FAMILY FRIEND ACQUAINTANCE, General, LONG ISLAND NEWS, NEIGHBOR, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST

Jose Saldana Mejia, a 19 year old Holtsville man, was sentenced yesterday to six months in the Suffolk County jail for taking a 13-year-old neighbor to Oklahoma in November.  He picked up the girl in his car after she left for school one morning in November and drove her to Enid, Oklahoma where he had relatives.  Mejia was arrested three days after she was reported missing.  He was charged with first-degree kidnapping but under a deal with prosecutors pleaded guilty last month to unlawful imprisonment.  A statutory rape charge is pending against him in Oklahoma for allegedly having sex with the girl there.  He will be extradited to Enid County after serving the Suffolk sentence.  He also received five years probation and was certified as a sex offender during the sentencing.

(New York)