Mecca kidnapping suspect to stand trial

A 30-year-old man accused of forcing a motorist at gunpoint to lead sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase in Mecca in 2020 was ordered to stand trial today.

Gutberto Antonio Rodriguez was arrested Sept. 3, 2020 in North Shore after being on the run for several weeks.

Along with the kidnapping count, Rodriguez is charged with criminal threats, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking, along with several weapons-related sentence-enhancing allegations.   

Rodriguez appeared at the Larson Justice Center on Friday for a preliminary hearing, where a Riverside County Superior Court judge found there to be sufficient evidence for Rodriguez to stand trial on the charges. He is scheduled for a post-preliminary hearing arraignment on April 14 and remain sheld at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on $1 million bail.  

According to Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Steve Davis, Rodriguez was the subject of a manhunt stemming from the Aug. 18, 2020 chase that started when sheriff's deputies attempted to pull over a car near Lincoln Street and 62nd Avenue in Mecca when Rodriguez, who was a passenger, allegedly held the driver at gunpoint and ``instructed the driver to evade deputies."  

The brief high-speed chase was terminated near Avenue 60 and Johnson Street, where Rodriguez ran away and a search ensued, Davis said.   

On Sept. 3, 2020, deputies located the suspect in the 101000 block of Sea Breeze Drive in North Shore, where he was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff's department reported. There was no word on how deputies found him.  

Rodriguez also had a warrant out for his arrest stemming from separate felony charges filed Aug. 21, 2020 -- assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at an occupied vehicle, and a misdemeanor count of brandishing a weapon or firearm -- which occurred in Mecca, court papers show.  

Rodriguez was convicted of a misdemeanor hit-and-run that resulted in property damage in 2018 but has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County.