Father, daughter make court appearance in kidnapping, rape case

LANCASTER, Calif. — An arraignment hearing has been postponed for a father and daughter accused in the October kidnapping of a woman who authorities have said was abducted in North Las Vegas, sexually assaulted and then left for dead in the Southern California desert.

Stanley Alfred Lawton, 55, and his 22-year-old daughter, Shaniya Poche-Lawton, face charges of kidnapping to commit another crime, attempted murder, kidnapping from outside the state, forcible rape and first-degree ATM robbery, according to their identical criminal complaints filed last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The father and daughter were arrested in early November in Palmdale, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, after military police found the victim wandering near Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County.

Lawton and Poche-Lawton appeared together Tuesday at the Michael Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse. The courtroom gallery was packed with their family members.

Both defendants remained in Southern California jails as of Tuesday — Lawton on $4.5 million bail and his daughter on $3.3 million — as they await their next court appearance on Jan. 10.

Their arraignments were postponed Tuesday, in part, because of additional pending discovery, including medical records from the Antelope Valley Hospital, according to attorneys for the pair.

After the brief hearing, during which both defendants shielded their faces, Poche-Lawton waved to her family in the courtroom gallery as she exited.

Authorities have not disclosed the victim’s relationship to the father and daughter but previously said they are not related.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has said the victim, who is in her 40s, was kidnapped at gunpoint on Oct. 30, forced to withdraw money from her bank account, and held in a room in Lawton’s Palmdale home for about a week before she was dumped in the desert.

According to the criminal complaint, the woman was forced to withdraw money from an ATM on Nov. 2 and 3, and was raped on or around Nov. 3.

During a Nov. 8 news conference announcing the arrests, Sheriff’s Department Capt. Eddie Hernandez called the kidnapping a “vicious case.”

“She was very lucky to be alive,” he said, although he did not elaborate further on the woman’s injuries.

The Sheriff’s Department was investigating the case with the North Las Vegas Police Department and the FBI. Court records indicate federal charges had not been brought against the father and daughter as of Tuesday.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.