BRENTWOOD — Contra Costa County prosecutors have filed two kidnapping counts and six other felony charges against a man arrested by Pittsburg police after people in Brentwood reported he was fighting with a woman inside a car.
Detectives also have arrested a second suspect tied to the case, police said Thursday.
Court records show that 21-year-old San Francisco resident James Llarena has been charged with two counts of kidnapping; two counts of false imprisonment; and one count each of infliction of corporal injury to a child or co-inhabitant, stalking, making criminal threats and animal cruelty.
Authorities did not say immediately what happened to warrant the animal cruelty charge. They also charged Llarena with injuring a wireless communications device, a misdemeanor, according to court records. They added an enhancement to the charges, because the offenses are alleged to have occurred in multiple counties.
On Thursday, police said they also arrested a 19-year-old Antioch man on suspicion of kidnapping and other crimes. No details of that arrest were available. Formal charges by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office had not been filed early Friday morning.
The charges against Llarena stem from a Sunday confrontation during which he and a woman fought inside a car, authorities said. Someone called Brentwood police about 2 p.m. to report the altercation in the 2200 block of Amber Lane and gave police a partial license plate number.
Police used that information to identify the vehicle and put out a call to other agencies in Contra Costa County to be on the lookout for it. Pittsburg police later pulled over the car on westbound state Highway 4 near the Railroad Avenue exit and arrested Llarena without incident, Brentwood police spokesperson Officer Lindzie Laughridge said.
The woman that Llarena is suspected to have fought was hospitalized with her injuries. Authorities said she and Llarena knew each other.