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A woman who helped her estranged husband translate a ransom note into English pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Linda Gonzalez, 21, of Edinburg Texas faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for her part in the scheme to kidnap two girls from a bus stop in Cornelius, according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The kidnapping plot was Ruben Garcia Rosario's idea, according to court documents. The girls were the daughters of a couple for whom he worked as a painter. He drove by their school bus stop several times, according to police, snapping pictures of the girls with his cell phone camera.
He promised Gonzalez $10,000 if she'd help translate the note, the release says.
Garcia was arrested Sept. 29 and is in Mecklenburg jail, charged with attempted kidnapping and conspiring to kidnap the two girls. Federal immigration officials have also placed a hold on him because he is an illegal immigrant.
The indictment says Garcia and Gonzalez wrote the ransom note over the telephone, which threatened to kill the children if they didn't receive money.
Parents called police in early September, saying a man was at the bus stop in Cornelius early one morning, Cornelius Police Maj. David King said at a news conference following the arrest. The parents provided a description of the car, but it was gone before police arrived.
On Sept. 22, police got another call from parents - the man taking pictures was back, and this time they had a license plate number.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police arrested Garcia and charged him with driving without a license and carrying a concealed weapon. But after he was interrogated, officers say he told them about the kidnapping scheme.
When officers searched his car, they found several ransom notes, pictures of the girls, a loaded gun, duct tape, latex gloves, a ski mask and two Mexican passports.
