Buellton Man Sentenced for Toddler Kidnapping Attempt

William Henderson mugshot (Photo: SBSO)

By edhat staff

A Buellton man was sentenced to 365 days in jail for attempting to kidnap a two-year-old from a grocery store last year.

William Henderson, 56, was sentenced Thursday morning in Santa Maria court. He will be released from County jail in June and transferred to a residential care center as well as receiving five years probation with no firearms or alcohol use, reports KEYT.

Henderson pleaded guilty last month to an amended charge of false imprisonment by force or violence after the charge of kidnapping and cruelty to a child were dropped under a plea deal.

In August, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the Albertsons grocery store in Buellton to investigate a report of an incident involving a 2-year-old child. They later learned Henderson had removed a 2-year-old child from inside a shopping cart and started walking toward the exit. The parent of the 2-year-old child stopped the suspect and the suspect released the child before leaving the store.

Henderson, the owner of a transportation business in the Santa Ynez Valley, was arrested a week later and pleaded not guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment by violence and one misdemeanor count of cruelty to a child in care or custody.