Court Watching: Casas bound over on charges of kidnapping 2 from Tyler Elementary

Joe Alex Casas, 30, of Van Buren Township was bound over to circuit court for trial following a live preliminary exam on May 11 before 34th District Court Judge Brian A. Oakley.
Casas is scheduled for a May 25 arraignment on the information at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit. He remains in the Wayne County Jail on cash bond of $250,000.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office had charged Casas with:
• Two felony counts of kidnapping – child enticement, with a penalty of life or any term of years;
• Three felony counts of unlawful imprisonment, with a penalty of 15 years and/or $20,000;
• One felony count of assault with a dangerous weapon (felonious assault), with a penalty of 4 years and/or $2,000;
• One count of domestic violence: 93- day misdemeanor and/or $500; and
• Habitual offender – fourth offense notice. The maximum penalty cannot be less than the maximum term for the first conviction.
A live preliminary exam was held May 11 before Judge Oakley. Casas’ live-in girlfriend, who is carrying his child, testified at length about how she had put together a plan to get away from him. But her plan failed when he took her two children – her nine-year-old daughter and her seven-year-old son — from Tyler Elementary School to keep her from leaving.
The mother testified that she and her two children had been with Casas for three years. She said they lived in a house in the 6000 block of Haggerty Road in a house owned by his boss.
She said she did not have a job or a driver’s license and did not drive. She said Tyler Elementary School gave backpacks to her children and gave a gift card from Meijer to spend on food when Casas was without work.
She testified that she and Casas would take the children to school together and he rarely was alone with them. She said the emergency form for the children listed him as Joe Hernandez, an alias.
She said it all started the evening of Feb. 14 when she told her son to take a shower and Casas bullied the boy. She said she told Casas not to bully the boy and an argument began that lasted into the next day when he wouldn’t let the kids go to school. She said he was yelling and put a hole in the wall with his fist.
She testified he told them nobody is leaving the house and he stood in front of the home’s only door. She said he grabbed her by the arm and put her on the couch.
She testified he told her children he was going to cut her head off and bury her in the back yard so no one would ever find her. She said he had a sharp machete that he kept on the TV set and moved to the couch.
The mother testified her phone didn’t have any service, but her mother bought her son a phone and she hid it from Casas. She said on Feb. 15 everybody stayed home all day and she came up with a plan.
On Feb. 16, she said she had been spotting blood and she already had lost a baby by Casas, so she said she didn’t feel well and asked him to take the children to school by himself. She said she watched out the window to make sure he left and then put on her shoes and started walking. She said she went to the little factory across the road.
She testified that Casas left about 8:45 a.m. and she started walking at 8:50 a.m. She said she called the school to make sure the children were there and told them not to let her children leave with anyone else, especially him.
She said she had received a card with money on it for child support and she planned to call an Uber and go pick up the children herself and then go to a shelter in Pontiac where a room had been reserved for them.
She said she saw him return to the empty house and then leave again.
Then, she got a text message from Casas telling her that she was stupid and he has the kids.
“I called the school and they said he just picked up the kids,” she said, adding he had told them the girl had a doctor’s appointment, which she didn’t.
“I started freaking out and calling him and text messaging telling him to bring back the kids,” she testified. She said he told her she was going to have to come back.
She said she had the school on the line and she was on the phone with the cops. They wanted a description of the car, what the kids were wearing, and who he was.
“I’m looking at the house from a distance and he’s not pulling in,” she said. The cops came and picked her up at the little factory place and took her to the station.
“I was in the patrol car and he called me and passed the phone to my son. He said, ‘Mommy, I’m OK.’ I was scared he would take them away, to another state, we’re so close to Ohio, or out of the country,” she testified. She said he told her he was taking them to Ann Arbor to get the bunk beds through Craig’s List.
He had a cell phone that only worked with wifi and it sounded in the background like he was at Meijer or Walmart, she said. He said they were getting toys, but she knew he didn’t have any money.
“He had threatened taking them away many times,” she said.
When asked if she went to the hospital, she said there was no need. She said she was crampy and bled, but there was only a bruise on her arm.
“If I stay in this relationship, I would lose another baby because he would throw me around,” she said. “We already lost one and he didn’t care. He didn’t care.”
She said the school principal expressed regret on what happened and she was worried about the children. “She apologized, making sure the kids were OK,” she testified.
Defense attorney Earl Washington pointed out that in a letter to Casas she told him she still loved him and asked him to forgive her for leaving.
She said she loved him because he was the father of the child she was carrying, but, “I gotta be a mom, rather than a woman or wife. If I stayed, there would be another baby. I’m more of a mom than a woman.”
The second witness was Tyler Elementary School Principal Aleisa Pitt, who testified she had been with the Van Buren Public School district for 43 years, 15 as principal of Tyler. She explained the pick-up policy and the list compiled of those allowed to pick up children. She said adults were not allowed in the building and a person would use the buzzer to call someone to the door. She said the secretary answers and if the person is not recognized, refuses entry.
Pitt testified that school starts at 9:15 a.m. and between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m., Hernandez pushed the buzzer. She said she was in the hallway, so she answered the door and he spoke to her and said the kids had an appointment. She couldn’t remember what kind. She said she recognized him. She got the kids and he took them. Then, she said, she went around to all the rooms, stopping to say good morning in each room before heading back to the office.
She testified that when she got back to the office, her secretary said, “We have a problem.” The mother had said no one should pick them up. The mother called the police and Pitt said she called the police. The police came for a printout and the second time police came back they said he had a different name than Hernandez.
“I was worried about the children. Something’s not right. I recognized him and he addressed me by my name,” she testified and then identified Casas in the courtroom.
Under cross-examination, Washington asked Pitt about the camera at the door. She replied that the secretary or herself have to go to open the door and there is no camera at the door. She said they do have an office hallway camera, but you can’t see the front door.
A VBT Police Officer testified that he answered a report from the principal that two children were removed from the school by the mother’s boyfriend, who called after they were gone. He said they broadcast the description of the car as a red Subaru with a Florida tag and a Canton officer initiated a traffic stop. The officer said he took Casas into custody. He did not take custody of the children but testified they did not look distressed.
He said he took Casas to the police station and read him his Miranda Rights. The officer said Casas said he picked up the kids because he was concerned about how the kids would get home since their mother was not at home.
Judge Oakley bound Casas over on all the charges to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice and continued the bond. Judge Oakley referred him to pretrial services for a bond review, as requested by his attorney.