Edgewater Man Took Car With Baby Inside To Avoid Arrest

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Holly Hill, FL - A 30-year-old Edgewater man with a long booking record at Volusia County Jail tells police he stole a car with a baby inside because he wanted to avoid getting arrested for an unrelated crime.

The Holly Hill Police Department charged Kyle J. Antonelli yesterday (November 3rd) for kidnapping and grand theft auto stemming from an incident earlier this week at the Arrow Wrecker towing company on Carswell Avenue.

As of this morning, Antonelli is currently held without bond at VCJ for those charges and for a forgery charge from the Edgewater Police Department.

Antonelli becomes the third person arrested by HHPD in connection to that case, and police are trying to find at least one more male suspect who's also connected.

According to the arrest report, that unknown suspect's theft of a GMC Yukon from the Arrow Wrecker tow yard on Halloween afternoon motivated Antonelli to steal a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer with a 6-month-old baby girl inside and "recklessly" speed away from the scene.

That suspect, Antonelli and the two women arrested in the tow yard incident - 34-year-old Sarah Ordonez and 36-year-old Jade Zatalava - arrived at the Arrow Wrecker just after 3 p.m. that day in Ordonez's Lancer with the baby inside.

Ordonez was babysitting the child and went to the tow yard to get some personal items out of a vehicle which had been towed there, per the report.

It was minutes after she and the unknown suspect got out of the car when that man got into the Yukon - which had the keys already in the ignition - and drove away, a vehicle which was owned by the tow yard, per HHPD.

Antonelli says that decision led him to move out of a back seat in the Lancer to the driver's seat, keeping Zatalava and the baby back there as he drove away, leaving Ordonez behind at the tow yard.

An emergency GPS search helped police find the Lancer around an hour later in the back of an apartment complex on Clifton Avenue, which is where HHPD also found Zatalava and the baby. The child has since been returned to its mother.

It was Zatalava who identified Antonelli as the man who stole the Lancer in a photo lineup, according to the arrest report.

EPD found Antonelli earlier in the day on Friday, soon after a family member of the couple who owns the Arrow Wrecker spotted the stolen Yukon in Edgewater and tried to follow it unsuccessfully.

When questioned, Antonelli told HHPD he knew the child was in the Lancer but he wanted to make sure he got away from the tow yard before police arrived to investigate the theft of the Yukon because of his active arrest warrant.

VCJ records show Antonelli's been booked there 28 times since May 2007, including four prior times this year on various charges. Those include heroin possession, methamphetamine possession and loitering & prowling.