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News Mar 30, 2022
| Photo courtesy of Grant Durr/Unsplash
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A Riverside man and his daughter who pleaded no contest to kidnapping a woman who was dumped in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base were sentenced Wednesday to state prison.
Stanley Alfred Lawton, 57, was ordered to serve 25 years to life in prison in connection with his no contest plea Feb. 23 to aggravated kidnapping with the intent to commit robbery. Lawton also admitted prior strikes for robbery and attempted murder, according to Ricardo Santiago with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Lawton’s daughter, Shaniya Nicole Poche-Lawton, 24, of Palmdale, pleaded no contest to kidnapping and admitted personally using a firearm, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said the woman was abducted Nov. 1, 2019, from the North Las Vegas area and found five days later by military police who were making their routine rounds outside the Air Force base.
The woman — who knew the two defendants — was kidnapped at gunpoint, driven to the Antelope Valley and was subsequently left in the desert, where she was able to seek help, prosecutors said shortly after the case was filed.
“At some point, she was sexually assaulted and left for dead,” Sheriff’s Capt. Eduardo Hernandez said shortly after the two were arrested in early November 2019.
The father and daughter were initially charged with a series of counts, including attempted murder, forcible rape and robbery, but the rape charge was dismissed against Shaniya Poche-Lawton in January 2021, according to court records. The remaining counts against them are expected to be dismissed as a result of their pleas.
The two have remained behind bars since they were taken into custody by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, jail records show.
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