Mother Pleads Guilty to Abducting Daughters

Last week, Michelle Gibbs, who on August 18, 2015 surrendered herself and her two four- and six-year-old daughters to officials in Baja California Sur after abducting them six months earlier, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of child abduction. At her June 1 sentencing, Gibbs, of Orcutt, faces four months in County Jail and three years of probation, said the District Attorney’s Office in a prepared statement.

After a February 26 custody hearing in Santa Maria Superior Court, which granted visitation rights to the children’s father, Gibbs fled the county with her girls.Six months later, she turned them all in to the U.S. consulate in San José del Cabos (Los Cabos), the most southern municipality in Baja California Sur. Multiple law enforcement agencies — from the Sheriff’s Department and the DA’s Office to the FBI and Mexican Immigration (Instituto Nacional de Migración) — were involved in their search.

Escorted by Mexican immigration officers, Gibbs and her daughters returned in good health on August 21 to the United States. Gibbs was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) by U.S. Marshals on a March arrest warrant. On August 24, the girls were reunited with their father.