Woman pleads for mentally ill son to return her…
Woman pleads for mentally ill son to return her abducted grandchildren
Charles Samuel Baines, 36, is believed to have headed to Mexico after abducting his sons, 10-year-old Charles Samuel Baines Jr. and 9-year-old Nathaniel James Baines, from a Harbor City home on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. (Photos courtesy of Carson Sheriff's Station)
By Larry Altman | laltman32@gmail.com | Contributing writer
PUBLISHED: November 29, 2013 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: September 1, 2017 at 3:52 a.m.
A South Bay woman pleaded Friday for her mentally ill son to return her grandchildren, saying the parolee took them from her home while she was napping and drove them across the border into Mexico.
Judith Baines said she fears for the safety of 10-year-old Charles Samuel Baines Jr. and his 9-year-old brother, Nathaniel James Baines. Both boys require medication for severe asthma, and their father, Charles Samuel Baines, 36, is a parolee who is bipolar and did not take his own medication with him.
"Please return the boys," Judith Baines said. "If you can't do anything else, have someone call and have the Mexican police pick them up or just take them to the border and drop them off. I am not worried about anything else, just getting the boys back, getting them home, giving them their asthma meds and taking care of them.
"They've already had so much trauma in their life. I need them to come back."
Sheriff's deputies said the father already had crossed the border into Mexico. Judith Baines said her son sometimes spoke of a fantasy of starting a drug cartel, and tattooed the words "Drug Cartel" onto his left cheek.
Judith Baines said her son recently began staying with her while she searched for a mental health facility for him to live. He has been in and out of institutions for disobeying the rules and getting into fights. She found a place for him, but he was not able to enter until Tuesday.
During his stay at her home in the 24800 block of Normandie Avenue near Harbor City, the mother monitored him and made sure he took his medications. On Wednesday, he took his sons to the park and returned with them. But while his mother took a nap because she wasn't feeling well, Baines disappeared with her grandchildren, students at San Pedro's White Point Elementary School, where she teaches.
Baines took her car, a red 2008 Kia Spectra with the license plate number 6FMN288, and the contents of her purse, including her ATM card and identification and two cellphones. He used the card, so she withdrew the balance of money in her account.
Judith Baines said her son is an alcoholic who served time in prison for numerous driving under the influence, burglary and auto theft convictions. He is suicidal and can become violent without his medications, she said.
On Jan. 22, 2012, Baines led Torrance police on a high-speed chase in a stolen Jeep Cherokee from the "restaurant row" area at Hawthorne and Torrance boulevards to Sepulveda Boulevard and Anza Avenue. Along the way, he drove at speeds up to 80 mph and into opposing traffic. He was arrested when he crashed into a Saturn carrying a woman and her 3-year-old child.
Judith Baines said authorities notified the Border Patrol to be on the lookout for her car, but somehow her son made it across into Tijuana.
The mother said Baines is easy to spot — he is 6 feet 4 inches tall and 270 pounds with a shaved head. In addition to the "Drug Cartel" tattoo, he sports a tattoo of a rabbit on his face and has women's names tattooed on his arms.
The grandmother spent Friday making a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and trying to persuade the Spanish media to spread the word in Tijuana.
"Please, Charles, if you see this, or anybody who knows where Charles is, you can call the Carson sheriff's station. They would be happy to help you get the boys back here, whatever it takes," she said.
Deputies asked anyone with information about the boys to call the Carson sheriff's station at 310- 830-1123, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
Larry Altman | Contributing writer
Larry Altman has covered crime and court proceedings in Southern California since 1987. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, Altman has worked for the Daily Breeze since 1990. The Society of Professional Journalists named him a "Distinguished Journalist" in Los Angeles in 2006. Altman's work was featured twice on CBS' "48 Hours" and he appeared eight times with "Nancy Grace," who called him "dear." He has covered hundreds of homicides and many trials. Altman has crawled through a mausoleum to open a coffin, confronted husbands who killed their wives, wives who killed their husbands, and his coverage helped put a child molester and a murderer in prison. In his spare time, Altman is an avid Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers fan, is the commissioner of a Fantasy Baseball league with several other current and former newspapermen, runs a real estate empire and likes to watch old movies on TCM.
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