By Daily Press staff
Rochelle Garrett, 29, was arrested by Los Angeles police officers at 9 a.m. at Holiday Motel at Pico Boulevard and 11th Street after she allegedly took Shanyia Payton while she was baby-sitting her.
Police were tipped off by a citizen who saw a news report about the kidnapping and had seen Garrett in Santa Monica. Garrett was supposed to return Payton to her mother at the corner of Sixth Street and San Pedro Street on Sunday at about 3:30 p.m. When she didn’t show up, the mother called police.
Payton was transported to the Central Area Community Police Station in Los Angeles where she was reunited with her mother unharmed.
Garrett, who has several listed addresses in South Central Los Angeles, has been arrested for a similar crime in the past, police said. She was at the hotel with a man when police arrested her.
Garrett was booked for kidnapping. The investigation is continuing and the case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 19, 2002. Read the original PDF.