BELCHERTOWN — An Amherst man who allegedly tried to kidnap a toddler from a downtown home during a break-in earlier this month will continue to be held without the right to bail until late April.
At a dangerousness hearing at Eastern Hampshire District Court before Judge William Rooney on Monday, Jimmy Lee Sanchez was ordered to remain in custody until his April 27 pretrial hearing, said Mary Carey, spokeswoman for the Northwestern district attorney’s office.
Sanchez, 35, was arrested on several charges on March 14 after Amherst police the previous day responded to a Spring Street home, at around 2 a.m., for a reported intruder.
The residents told police they were awakened by sounds of someone in their house and found a man they didn’t know on the second floor, dressed in dark clothing and holding their 20-month-old child.
They said the man tried to leave with their child and they pursued him outside and were able to wrest the toddler from the man’s arms, suffering minor injuries. The man took off on foot.
Sanchez was taken into custody the following day, during an unrelated incident on the University of Massachusetts campus, on charges of trespassing, breaking and entering in the nighttime to commit a felony and larceny from a building.
From the incident involving the toddler, Sanchez was arrested on charges of entering a dwelling in the nighttime for a felony, attempt to commit a crime (kidnapping), assault and battery, larceny from a building, and larceny under $1,200.
Sanchez, who will also undergo a mental health evaluation, would continue to be held at the Hampshire Jail and House of Correction, though his attorneys filed a motion for him to be transferred to the Franklin County House of Correction, Carey said.
The judge indicated that he would allow the motion, but the state’s Department of Corrections will determine whether Sanchez should be transferred to the Greenfield facility.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
