He’s accused of grabbing a child by the armpits and telling the child, “You’re coming with me.” Nelson R. Vrana is charged with attempted child kidnapping following his arrest at a Springfield Walmart Nov. 12.
The Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed the single charge against Vrana the day after his arrest. It was about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon when Vrana allegedly approached a customer and their child in the self-checkout area of the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 444 West Grand Street.
Vrana allegedly picked up the child, whose age is not given in a probable cause statement Springfield police officers filed, by the armpits and said, “You’re coming with me.”
The child’s father then took back the child. Vrana allegedly walked out of the store. In the probable cause statement, police wrote that the store’s surveillance footage shows video of a man wearing a red shirt, allegedly Vrana, walking up to the child and picking up the child. The child was within about 2 feet of their father throughout the incident, the officer wrote.
Parking lot confrontation, denial
According to the police report, the customer finished checking out and then walked out of the store into the parking lot, where they saw Vrana loading items into a vehicle. The father allegedly approached Vrana, who said, “Bring it, big boy. Whatever you want to do.”
Later on Sunday, Springfield police officers located a car that matched the description of what the parent described to them at the Walmart store. Using surveillance footage and by matching descriptions of Vrana’s clothing and Vrana’s vehicle, police officers determined Vrana was a person of interest in the Walmart incident, and arrested Vrana.
“Before asking Vrana any questions, he indicated the incident was a misunderstanding,” the police officer wrote in their report.
Vrana told police the child was about 10 to 15 feet away from their father and was “running for the door.” Vrana told police he reached down to pick up the child because he believed the child would run out the door and exit the store, where they could be harmed in the parking lot.
“Vrana denied saying anything about the child coming with him,” the officer wrote in the probable cause statement. “Vrana denied he made any attempt to abduct or kidnap the child.”
What the law says
Attempted child kidnapping is a class B felony under Missouri law. The law describes the crime of child kidnapping as when a person who is not a relative of a child, “knowing he or she has no right to do so,” takes a child under the age of 14 without consent of the child’s parent or guardian.
There is a clause in the law that protects people who are found to be protecting a child from eminent danger:
“In determining whether the child was removed or confined unlawfully, it is an affirmative defense that the person reasonably believed that the person's actions were necessary to preserve the child from danger to his or her welfare,” the clause reads.
Missouri law stipulates that a class B felony is punishable by a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 15 years in prison, upon conviction.
Staying in jail
Vrana is being held in the Greene County Jail without bond, per an order from Greene County Associate Circuit Judge Nathan Taylor.
Court records indicate Vrana is on probation for a prior felony conviction of aggravated DWI, a class D felony he pleaded guilty to April 15, 2019. Vrana is serving five years of supervised probation. All of Vrana’s past criminal convictions available as public record are for driving while intoxicated or driving without a suspended license.
Vrana's next court appearance has not been set. He did not have a defense attorney hired or appointed as of 9 a.m. Nov. 15.
