Sentencing delayed for Modesto man who held girlfriend captive

A sentencing on Friday was put off for a Modesto man who punched his girlfriend and held her captive in a motel room after she tried to leave to feed her children.

Alvin Bernard Jones will get a new court-appointed attorney. The judge granted the defendant a new attorney after closing the courtroom and hearing why Jones felt he did not have adequate legal representation.

Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Dawna Reeves scheduled Jones to return to court Nov. 20 to determine who will represent him and whether that attorney will seek a new trial. The defendant has to have an opportunity to file a motion for a new trial before he can be sentenced.

Jones, 46, remains in custody at the jail and faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

A jury in late August found Jones guilty of battery on a co-habitant, making criminal threats, false imprisonment, vehicle theft and possessing methamphetamine, according to prosecutors.

The defendant has three violent felony convictions, which make him eligible for a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison under the state’s “three-strikes” law.

The incident involving Jones and his girlfriend occurred April 14 at the Vagabond Inn motel on McHenry Avenue in central Modesto. Modesto police Officer Austin Wilson arrived at the motel about 9 p.m. and spotted a woman with a bloody nose and no shirt. The woman was running toward the officer.

The woman told police she had been held in her motel room against her will for several hours by her boyfriend, Jones, Deputy District Attorney Beth O’Hara De Jong has said.

The girlfriend had asked for her car keys because she wanted to go to the Modesto Gospel Mission, where her kids could get something to eat. The shelter serves food to needy and homeless people. Her children were not with her inside the motel room.

Jones was angered that his girlfriend wanted to leave, and he became violent. He punched his girlfriend’s nose, threatened to kill her and tackled her when she tried to leave, according to De Jong.

The woman escaped from the motel room when Jones answered a knock at the door, and she ran to the motel manager’s office.

Jones left the area in his girlfriend’s car. On April 22, California Highway Patrol Officer Phillip De Prater spotted Jones driving his girlfriend’s stolen car. The CHP officer found that Jones had meth in his pocket.

This story was originally published October 24, 2014 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Sentencing delayed for Modesto man who held girlfriend captive."