Mall manager prepping store was kidnapped in 1994, CA officials say. Now man convicted
A man has been convicted in the kidnapping of a mall manager from 29 years ago, California prosecutors said.
Thomas John Loguidice, 67, was convicted in the 1994 kidnapping at Oakridge Mall in San Jose after jurors spent two days deliberating, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said a Dec. 19 news release.
“We do not forget,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the release. “The passage of time does not minimize this defendant’s violent and horrific acts, and he deserves to be held accountable.”
Loguidice is accused of kidnapping a 21-year-old manager at knifepoint as she tried to open a store on Jan. 13, 1994, prosecutors said.
He forced the woman into a back storage room, where he put her “on the ground, bound her wrists, and tied her to a pipe,” prosecutors said.
Loguidice stole some cash from the showroom register before returning to sexually assault the restrained woman and fleeing, according to prosecutors.
Despite the San Jose Police Department’s investigation into the case, it “eventually went cold,” prosecutors said.
Decades later, the district attorney’s cold case office learned DNA from the 1994 incident matched a profile in the Combined DNA Index System, according to prosecutors.
The profile belonged to Loguidice, who was in the system after being convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in 2012, prosecutors said. He’s serving a 40-year prison sentence.
Loguidice was charged with kidnapping with the intent to commit robbery last January, prosecutors said, McClatchy News reported.
He was not, however, indicted on sexual assault charges, as the statue of limitations expired in 2000, prosecutors said.
Loguidice could potentially face a lifetime prison sentence on top of his current sentence, according to prosecutors.
He is expected to appear in court for sentencing on Jan. 15, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Mall manager prepping store was kidnapped in 1994, CA officials say. Now man convicted."
