James Christopher Corr Could Get Life for Wild Carjacking with Toddler and Saint Bernard Aboard

A Mission Viejo man who allegedly stole a SUV with a toddler strapped in a car seat out of an Aliso Viejo family's garage could get life in state prison based on the laundry list of charges against him. The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) was asking for $1 million bail today at the arraignment for 34-year-old James Christopher
Corr, who is charged with one felony count each of
carjacking, kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking, child
abuse, child stealing, second degree vehicle burglary, first degree
robbery, aggravated assault, hit and run with injury, vandalism over
$400, two felony counts of first degree residential burglary, one
misdemeanor count of resisting an officer, and sentencing enhancements
for non-accomplice present during a residential burglary and a prior
prison conviction in Nevada for leaving the scene of an accident in
2007. Other than all that, he's a sweet guy.
]

Sometime between 6 and 8 a.m. Saturday, Corr is alleged to have broken into a Honda Accord parked in front of an Aliso Viejo business and stealing a purse filled with credit cards. Meanwhile, after strapping her 2-year-old son into his car seat and putting the family's Saint Bernard in a caged-off area in the back of her Volvo SUV, the boy's eight months pregnant mother had gone back into her house on Golf Drive to get her son's sippy cup just after 8 a.m. when Corr is accused of walking in through the open garage door, sliding into the driver's seat through the open door and preparing to drive off.

Seeing this, the frantic mother yelled at the driver to let her son go as the child cried in the back seat. She even tried to remove the boy from an open car window, but Corr allegedly backed up and knocked the woman to the ground. He reversed so quickly he ran over the woman's foot and left a skid mark on the ground, according to the OCDA.

The SUV crashed into the garage door frame as well as the neighbor's garage, causing the rear door next to the crying child to open and hang down. A neighbor who saw this going down jumped into her own car and followed the Volvo. She later told investigators the fleeing SUV was driven erratically, at high speeds and through a red light. Then, heading into an adjoining neighborhood, Corr is accused of jumping out of the still-running SUV without applying the parking brake. With the child and dog still inside, the SUV ran up a curb and nearly hit a tree. The neighbor who'd been following then went over to assist the child.

Corr is said to have fled on foot, hopping over fences and through residential backyards. He allegedly took pruning shears to try to break in through one home's locked door. Running away from there, he was spotted by an Orange County sheriff's deputy who ordered the man to stop. He was ultimately caught, arrested and accused of having the credit cards stolen from the purse in the Honda in his pants pockets.

The boy was not harmed.