FREMONT — A convicted kidnapper, suspected of abducting his estranged relationship partner in August, then stabbing and beating her while holding her hostage for a week, has been charged with multiple crimes, according to authorities and court records.
The woman was finally able to escape when the suspect took her on a camping trip, authorities said.
The suspect, 61-year-old Jose Terra, has been charged with felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, corporal injury to a domestic partner, battery with serious bodily injury, false imprisonment by violence and making criminal threats. He is also charged with a misdemeanor for disobeying a court order.
He was arrested and charged in early September and is being held in lieu of $345,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Oct. 25.
According to court records, the victim’s ordeal began Aug. 26 when she was picked up at her home in Northern California by Terra. She had been separated from him and had a protective order against him due to previous domestic violence cases and threats he made to her, the records say.
It was not clear why the woman got into Terra’s vehicle with him.
Terra drove the woman to Fremont where Terra lives. While they were in his pick-up truck before he took her to his residence, he became upset with her, and began accusing her of cheating on him while he was in prison, the records say.
According to the records, while still in the truck, Terra began to threaten the victim, putting a pocketknife to her throat and telling her he was going to kill her and that he was not going back to prison.
He then punched her in the side, fracturing some ribs, and also punched her in the left eye before stabbing her in the leg at least twice, the records say.
He also allegedly hit the woman in the head with the handle of the knife. She later told police she believed she needed to comply with him and began consoling him and agreeing with him so he would not kill her, the records say.
He eventually took her to his home on Morris Way, where, according to the records, he kept her to let her visible injuries heal and made her take care of him and his blind mother.
The woman later told police she tried to escape once during the week but Terra was able to find her and continue holding her against her will. He also took her cell phone, preventing her from calling the police or her children.
Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4 he continued to threaten to kill the woman and punched her multiple times, the records say.
The woman was finally able to get away on Sept. 4 after Terra took her on a camping trip to a lake near Yosemite National Park. She eventually was able to contact her children, who contacted police and took her to a hospital.
According to court records Terra has a February 2014 kidnapping conviction in Alameda County for which he received a prison term of seven years. It was not known when he was released.
That conviction stemmed from a May 2013 case in Livermore. According to the records, Terra kidnapped his then-girlfriend in a jealous rage and drove her around for six hours, slapping her and threatening to kill her with a knife. He was arrested after a Livermore police officer saw his truck make a sudden stop and witnessed the woman, bloodied and with disheveled hair, run from the vehicle. After his arrest, Terra tried to contact the victim via phone from jail, in violation of an emergency protective order she had obtained.
He was charged with multiple felonies including kidnapping. In a later plea deal, he pleaded no contest to the kidnapping charge and the others were dismissed.