Sonoma County child snatcher back in jail after alleged probation violation

A Santa Rosa woman given probation in June after briefly snatching a 4-year-old girl at a Trader Joe’s grocery store is back in jail and facing an eight-year prison term after violating the conditions of her release.

Tina Szczepanek, 42, was to have spent her five-year probation in Massachusetts, near family members eager to support her through a residential drug treatment program, according to court records. Her probation was to have been transferred there for the years that remained after treatment.

But at some point, Szczepanek, who has a history of mental illness, was dismissed from the program for threatening violence, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said.

She turned up back in Santa Rosa and was arrested Tuesday after she was found smoking methamphetamine in violation of court orders that prohibit even alcohol use.

Prosecutors that argued for her to be sent to prison last June will now try again, Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell said.

The child’s mother, Lexie Pence, supports them.

“Given the nature of the crime, we feel probation was a lenient sentence,” Pence said in an email. “And now, yet again, she has proven her disregard for the law by not only violating the terms of her probation but being so bold as to travel back to Santa Rosa.”

Pence was shopping with her daughter Dec. 8, 2016 at the Trader Joe’s on Santa Rosa Avenue when her daughter went to put away a small shopping cart near the store entrance. A stranger swooped in, scooped up the girl and started out to the parking lot as Pence watched panic-stricken from the checkout line.

Pence ran after her daughter and Szczepanek got only about 30 feet before Pence persuaded her to put the child down. But the little girl was extremely traumatized and changed by the event, her mother said.

Judge Dana Simonds gave Szczepanek a suspended eight-year prison term and said probation, with treatment, was more appropriate because of the woman’s history of childhood trauma, mental illness, substance abuse and other issues. She noted that Szczepanek had just been released from a three-day mental health confinement when the kidnapping occurred and later did not remember the incident.

But Pence said the court needs to hold Szczepanek accountable now. “The thought of probation being reinstated and her being back on our streets is alarming,” she said.

Szczepanek is scheduled to appear in court April 23 to deny or admit violation of her probation and will be held without bail until then, authorities said.

If she denies the offense, a judge will weigh the evidence and decide if she’s guilty, Staebell said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.