Oak Harbor teen arrested for alleged kidnapping

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 14, 2026

A 17-year-old Oak Harbor boy was arrested last week on suspicion of kidnapping a teenage girl at gunpoint, according to court documents.

The boy appeared in Island County Superior Court in the afternoon of April 10. Judge Carolyn Cliff found probable cause existed to believe the boy may have committed the crimes of kidnapping in the second degree and assault in the fourth degree.

Deputy Prosecutor Amy Mirabile asked the judge to set the boy’s bail at $10,000, which she conceded was a large amount in a juvenile case. But she argued that he represents a threat to the community, especially if he has a gun. Also, he allegedly committed the crime while he was on probation.

The teenager’s attorney, Natalie Findley-Wolf, argued that the bail should be significantly less. She said her client adamantly denies the allegations. She also pointed out that police were unable to confirm he had a firearm.

Cliff, however, agreed that the boy represented a material threat to the community and set his bail at $10,000.

Just before 1 a.m. on April 10, a 15-year-old girl called 911 and reported that she had been held at gunpoint and beaten by the defendant; she said she needed help, according to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office.

Both the deputy and officers from the Oak Harbor Police Department responded to the North Whidbey residence. They looked into a window and saw the boy and girl in a room; the boy ran out. The officers knocked on the door, and the boy’s mother let them inside the house. They went to the boy’s bedroom and found the girl, who said the boy had just left to hide drugs; he returned through the back door shortly afterward, the report states.

The girl claimed that the boy and his friend both were armed with guns and held her captive at a trailer on the property the previous day, the report states. She claimed the friend pointed a gun at her head and that both of them punched her at different times, the deputy wrote.

The girl said she was in the bedroom with the boy that night, and she used her phone to record him assaulting her, the deputy wrote. She claimed that the video showed the boy place a gun into his waistband, but the deputy wrote that it was not clear enough to identify a firearm.

The girl denied being in a dating relationship with the defendant. In court, Mirabile said that police haven’t identified the second person who was allegedly involved in the kidnapping.

The deputy wrote it was previously reported that the boy was carrying a firearm. Since 2023, he had been booked into juvenile jail 10 times, the report states.

On Monday, the boy appeared in court before Judge Christon Skinner and admitted to probation violations in a minor in possession case. A probation counselor said the defendant’s behavior had been escalating and that he admitted to using fentanyl and methamphetamine. The prosecutor and the probation counselor recommended a sentence of 30 days in detention, which Skinner imposed.

The News-Times does not generally name minor defendants in non-homicide cases.