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A man accused of abducting a 3-year-old girl from her Houston home could face more charges, pending medical exams.
Holman Hernandez, 50, appeared Tuesday with a black eye in the 232nd District Court on an aggravated kidnapping charge in connection to the girl’s disappearance from her Greenspoint-area home, an incident on Sunday that prompted an Amber Alert search aimed at the man’s vehicle and license plate. He was apprehended at the nearby Scottish Inn motel.
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Police said Hernandez struggled with law enforcement during the arrest Sunday. He is being held at the Harris County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Prosecutors believe Hernandez was intent on sexually assaulting the child, according to court documents. Hernandez has maintained that “nothing happened” with the girl,” Assistant District Attorney Phillip White said.
White expressed skepticism toward Hernandez’s statement but told the judge that the extent of their knowledge into what happened in the motel room is limited. The girl, once rescued, was taken to a hospital. She is expected to be interviewed to determine what may or may not have happened while with Hernandez for about 12 hours.
“There are trained people who handle that,” White said. “They know exactly how to have those difficult conversations, how to have those tough terms to talk about what happened or what didn’t happen.”
Judge Josh Hill asked the prosecutors to return to court with the results of the unspecified medical exams and testing.
“With the information I do have, this is very concerning,” Hill said in court, adding that he would leave Hernandez’s bail as it stands until more is known. “I understand these cases are very dynamic.”
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Prosecutors in court outlined how the alleged kidnapping unfolded.
The girl’s parents went to bed around 11 p.m. Saturday and woke around 5 a.m. to find the child missing and their front door ajar.
A neighbor, whom Hernandez had visited that night, saw him talking to a crying child around 1:30 a.m. Surveillance footage at the apartment complex showed Hernandez luring the child into his vehicle with a cat, according to prosecutors. It was not known if the cat was real or a stuffed animal toy.
After the Amber Alert was issued, Houston police officers went door-to-door with surveillance footage of the abduction and photos of Hernandez. Officers spoke to a clerk at the Scottish Inn, and who then found Hernandez in their records.
The officers went to the motel room and found Hernandez in bed with the child. He was wearing only his boxers while the child had a pajama top on and diapers.
Hernandez told police that he found the child walking alone and picked her up. His car then broke down and he stopped to get a motel room. Hernandez at no point called authorities to report the child or make an attempt to find her family, prosecutors said in court.
During a conversation with Hernandez’s wife, investigators learned that he left home at some point to go drinking with friends. Hernandez called her around 4:45 a.m. and she heard a child crying in the background.
She heard Hernandez tell the child to “please stop crying,” prosecutors said.
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Hernandez’s lawyer, appointed that morning, asked the judge to consider a lower $100,000 bond, stating that the prosecutors did not provide any evidence in the probable cause to merit the aggravated nature of the charge.
“There isn’t any evidence that this case is aggravated,” defense attorney Mario Madrid said, adding that any evidence pointing to a sexual assault were not divulged in the probable cause. “You didn’t hear that in court because there wasn’t any evidence of it.”
Madrid said Hernandez, who is married and has an adult child, has lived in Houston for nearly 30 years and works as an electrician. His work visa may have expired, he continued.
Court records show Hernandez is a citizen of Honduras and that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed an immigration hold on him should he be freed.
Prior criminal convictions include a pair of driving while intoxicated charges — both misdemeanors — in 2005 and 2018.
Nicole Hensley is a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle. She joined the Chronicle in 2018 from the New York Daily News and after writing for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. A native of Seattle, Nicole is a graduate of Washington State University.
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