Yesenia Sesmas (left) is seen in an undated photo provided by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Sesmas is a suspect in the shooting death of a Wichita, Kans., woman on and stealing her baby, Sophia Victoria Gonzalez Abarca (right). (AP)
WICHITA, Kan. – A Dallas woman accused of killing a Kansas woman and kidnapping her newborn daughter was arrested in July for allegedly threatening another woman with a knife and trying to hold that woman's two daughters for ransom.
Adriana Portillo told The Wichita Eagle that she couldn't believe that Yesenia Sesmas had been released after the July arrest. She found out Monday that Sesmas had been arrested in last week's killing of another Wichita woman, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and the abduction of Abarca-Nogueda's 6-day-old daughter, Sophia. The girl was retrieved safely from Sesmas' Dallas home Saturday during a pre-dawn raid and reunited with family.
Sesmas, 34, remained jailed in Texas on Tuesday. The complaint detailing the charges against her in Kansas won't be revealed until she appears in court there. The extradition process could take up to 90 days.
In a jailhouse interview with Dallas-Fort Worth TV station KUVN, Sesmas admitted that she killed Abarca-Nogueda but said she didn't mean to. She said Abarca-Nogueda had reneged on an agreement to give her her newborn daughter, and that she threatened Abarca-Nogueda with a gun that accidentally discharged, killing her.
Sesmas moved from Wichita to Dallas sometime since July. Portillo told the Eagle that she had been friends with Sesmas for years, but knew her as Patricia Hernandez. She said Sesmas offered to give her a TV and some clothing she wasn't taking with her to Dallas, and that she invited her and her daughters, ages 10 and 3, to collect the things from her basement.
Portillo, who was eight months pregnant at the time, said things got strange and violent in Sesmas' basement. Portillo said Sesmas had a knife and duct tape and that she took away her cellphone, telling Portillo to tape up her girls. She said Sesmas demanded $10,000 and said she had two cohorts who were friends with Portillo's husband and who thought he could afford to pay that much to get the girls back.
Portillo said she told Sesmas they didn't have the money, and that she and Sesmas then began fighting. During the struggle, Portillo's older daughter managed to get her phone back and call police. Portillo said she hit Sesmas in the eye, and that she and her girls ran outside and got into their van. Sesmas ran after them and tried getting in, eventually managing to grab the keys and throw them. Police then arrived and arrested Sesmas.
Records show that Sesmas was booked into a Sedgwick County jail in July on suspicion of aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping and kidnapping.
Georgia Webb, office manager for the Sedgwick County district attorney's office, said Sesmas bonded out of jail after that July arrest, but she wouldn't comment when asked whether formal charges were filed at that time.
Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said Thursday that Sesmas didn't show up to an Aug. 9 court appearance and that his office faxed a warrant to authorities in Dallas asking for help in finding her.
Melinda Urbina, spokeswoman for the Dallas County sheriff's office, said Sesmas remained jailed there under an immigration hold and the Sedgwick County arrest warrants related to her July arrest.
Urbina said she didn't know if Sesmas has an attorney.
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