Grandmother Ericka Gallego of El Monte, California was sentenced to eight years in prison for kidnapping her own four-month-old granddaughter in 2011 and attempting to pass the girl off as her own two-week-old daughter. Gallego had apparently been faking a pregnancy for months before she scooped the girl up from her own son's bedroom and tried to throw herself a baby shower the next day.
In court, Gallego's daughter-in-law Kristin said she "began going ballistic," when she woke up to find her baby missing. "After running around the house for what felt like hours, screaming, then talking with officers as they arrived, I was in complete shock. I didn't know what to think," she said.
While her son Rudy and daughter-in-law launched a statewide search effort, Gallego was throwing herself a lavish shower that included a $2,000 mariachi troupe and a $1,500 photographer. So, aside from being the world's worst grandmother, it seems she really just wanted an excuse to spend some cash on herself.
When Gallego showed off the 14-pound baby to her friends as her daughter "Katrina," attendees apparently raised eyebrows at the then-58-year-old new mom. Someone called the police and the whole sordid shower came to a halt just 15 hours after the girl went missing from a bassinet in her parents' bedroom.
Gallego "is not right in the head," deputy district attorney Paul Graves of Contra Costa County admitted of the kidnapper, who spent time in a mental institution while awaiting trial. But Graves believes her mental condition, like the pregnancy itself, was a sham: "Her problem is not her mental state. Her problem is she doesn't care about anyone else," Graves said. "She was prepared to raise that child while her own son and daughter-in-law thought that their child was dead for the rest of their lives." Which probably would have raised even more eyebrows when her adult son — a father of four — came over to meet his new baby sister.
Although Kristin Gallego has forgiven the nightmare mother-in-law, her kids are still terrified of their own grandmother. For months, Kristin said, the children would ask her, "What if grandma gets out of jail and steals me next?"
In April, Gallego was found guilty of kidnapping and residential burglary. Her son Rudy Gallego, meanwhile, did not attend the sentencing this week. According to his wife Kristin, "He's disowned her."
