A 55-year-old La Mesa man was sentenced to slightly over ten years in federal prison Wednesday for kidnapping his estranged wife from her apartment, beating her, and driving her into the Mexican desert before a frantic signal at a border post saved her. According to authorities, Chad Oso arrived unexpectedly at the victim’s La Mesa home in 2024, triggering a chain of events that escalated a domestic argument into an international criminal case.
According to the Department of Justice, Oso beat and followed the woman after she attempted to warn a neighbor, dragging her downstairs and forcing her into his vehicle before driving away.
Prosecutors say he left her two young children alone in the residence. Prosecutors claimed that the woman had injuries to several regions of her body during the assault. According to court filings, Oso later claimed that the woman voluntarily entered his vehicle and denied attacking her.
According to the Department of Justice, as Oso drove about La Mesa refusing to let her go, the victim attempted to flee and was seen crying for help by onlookers. Passersby phoned 911, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as reported by the Times of San Diego. Oso then crossed into Mexico, where authorities allege he planned to abandon the victim in the desert.
According to court documents, Oso later contended that he did not purposefully drive into Mexico. The crossing transported the case across an international boundary.
Rather than going to the desert, the victim placed her hand out of the vehicle window at a Mexican checkpoint, drawing the attention of Mexican Customs agents, according to the Department of Justice. Those officials returned the automobile to the US border, where Customs and Border Protection officers rescued her and arrested Oso. The account describes how CBP officials respond at the border.
In early 2026, a federal jury in San Diego convicted Oso. The United States District Court for the Southern District of California sentenced him to little more than ten years in federal prison on Wednesday, according to the Department of Justice. The account does not go into depth about Oso’s parole eligibility or the length of his sentence.
According to Eisner Gorin LLP, the Federal Kidnapping Act makes it a federal crime to unlawfully seize and transfer a person across international borders, punishable by up to life in prison. That statute is part of the legal foundation for Oso’s federal lawsuit.
The Kidsdata.org database tracks domestic abuse requests for help and includes California totals. The materials cited do not describe the services provided by Family Justice Centers or One Safe Place.
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