Man found guilty of kidnapping 6-year-old who fought him off in Miami

A man was found guilty Friday of kidnapping a 6-year-old girl who told police she was grabbed and slapped while playing outside her Miami apartment.

Leonardo Venegas, 34, was also found guilty of child abuse after the jury deliberated for two hours. He was arrested in July 2023 and charged with kidnapping now 9-year-old Ah’Lyric. Prosecutors say he snatched the child and slapped her before fleeing the scene.

Surveillance video shows Venegas allegedly roaming an apartment complex in northeast Miami-Dade around July 4 and July 6 of 2023. Prosecutors said that on July 4, Venegas waved at the child as she watched fireworks, trying to lure her toward him. After that failed attempt, they said he returned two days later in a more “aggressive” manner.

According to an arrest report, the now 9-year-old Ah’Lyric was playing in her apartment courtyard with her siblings when they noticed a white Range Rover park nearby. The other children went inside, but the 6-year-old remained on the stairway.

Moments later, the girl said a man, later identified as Venegas, grabbed her arm and began pulling her. When she fought back, prosecutors said he picked her up and attempted to carry her away. She bit him on the arm, causing him to drop her. Venegas then slapped her and ran off, according to the report.

“I bit him,” Ah’Lyric told NBC6 at the time, adding she learned the move from her mother.

“Leonardo Venegas kidnapped Ah’Lyric, but unfortunately for the defendant, he chose the wrong little girl,” prosecutor Jared Lorenz said during closing arguments.

Venegas, who became emotional while testifying in his own defense, denied all allegations and called the child a liar. His attorney, David Donet, acknowledged Venegas appears in the surveillance video but argued he was in the area viewing properties as a realtor. Donet also criticized Miami Police, saying investigators mishandled the case.

“Had the little girl who was kidnapped been a white girl in Coral Gables or Bayshore Drive…there would have been a lot better police work done,” Donet said.

Prosecutors dismissed that argument, saying Venegas deliberately targeted vulnerable children.

“Leonardo Venegas,  who lives in Miami Shores in an apartment in front of the water with a brand-new Range Rover…doesn’t go somewhere around where he lives,” said Alejandra De La Fuente, Assistant State Attorney. “Instead, on July 4 and July 6, he picks low-income neighborhoods where there are little kids unsupervised to prey on.”

Venegas faces up to life in prison if convicted.