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This man kidnapped his girlfriend's daughter, had a child with her

A California man is standing trial on charges of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl that he went on to marry and live with for a decade.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald made the decision after hearing preliminary evidence against 41-year-old Isidro Garcia, who has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities said the daughter of Garcia's live-in girlfriend told them he began fondling her shortly after she was brought from Mexico in 2004 to live with her mother in Santa Ana, and that he repeatedly had sex with her despite her protests, Daily Mail Reports.

After an argument broke out at the home, the girl said, Garcia took her to a neighboring county, where he told her she would be deported and separated from her mother if she contacted authorities, Santa Ana police Cpl. Ricardo Diaz testified.

The girl was given fake ID and a job but Garcia prevented her from fleeing and assaulted her, Diaz said. Garcia later married and fathered a daughter with the girl, who is now 25, and lived with her until last year.

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'This is a different type of captivity,' prosecutor Whitney Bokosky told reporters after the hearing.

'It is more of a mental captivity. She doesn't know where else to go, she doesn't know where else to turn to.'

Garcia is charged with one count of rape, one count of kidnapping with intent to rape, and three counts of lewd acts on a child.

He is being held on $1 million bail and scheduled to be arraigned May 5.

The case came to light last year when the woman went to a police station in Bell Gardens to report a domestic violence incident and was connected to a missing-persons report filed by her mother in 2004.

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Defense lawyer Charles Frisco said the girl left willingly with Garcia and fabricated the allegations after reconnecting last year with her sister on Facebook and attempting to win back her mother's love.

'She had so many opportunities to leave,' Frisco said.

Neighbors were shocked to learn of the case and said the pair, who in recent years lived in a Los Angeles suburb, seemed happy and loving.

Zak Salazar, a 53-year-old friend of Garcia who attended the hearing, had trouble imagining that the friendly, helpful man he knew would be capable of the allegations made by Diaz.

'We're listening to her side' of the story, he said.

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Last year, a number of Garcia’s friends and neighbors painted a very different picture, saying the woman was so happy with her husband that she was desperate to add to their family and have another baby.

She had apparently had fertility injections prior to the birth of their daughter three years ago. And she told neighbors Adely Rios and her father, Ernesto, that she was undergoing more treatment to have a second child.

Lat year, Police described the ordeal during which the now 25-year-old woman — broken through mental, physical and sexual abuse — was moved at least four times and given multiple fake identities to hide her from family and authorities.

The woman, who police did not identify by name, said she often thought about escaping but stayed out of fear, even though in recent years she was not physically held captive.

Then, in April of last year, the woman got in touch with her mother after finding her sister on Facebook to wish her a happy birthday, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

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The mother showed the daughter news articles written at the time of her 2004 disappearance to prove that she had gone to the police and filed a missing-persons report, according to Bertagna.

The woman said in a television interview that she was overjoyed to be reunited with her family.

'I was very afraid about everything because I was alone,' she said.

The woman had arrived in the U.S. from Mexico several months before her abduction and did not speak English at the time.

After one fight between the girl's mother and Garcia in August 2004, the girl's mother left the house and the girl went to a nearby park.

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Garcia allegedly followed the girl. When he caught up with her, she said she had a headache and wanted to go home.

He told her then, 'You can't go home. You're here illegally. You don't speak the language. Your mom's called the police. They will send you back. I'm your only hope,'Bertagna said.

Garcia allegedly gave her five pills that he said would help her headache but instead knocked her out. When the girl awoke, she was locked in a garage in Compton, a city between Santa Ana and Los Angeles.

The mother 'filed a police report and for 10 years (police) did due diligence. But they were changing their names and dates of birth and physical locations so that made it exceedingly difficult,' Bertagna said.

In 2007, Garcia got documents from Mexico that gave the girl a new name and date of birth. Using those documents, he married her at a courthouse.

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Police said the woman tried to escape twice but was severely beaten.

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