Keith Morrison

We're ecstatic.

But in a case where nothing was exactly what it appeared to be, the man at the center of it all, Raymond Jennings, was nowhere near the Antelope Valley.

Jennings, the National Guardsman, was halfway around the world, serving his country in Iraq.

But all was not lost.

His hitch was up and in just a few weeks, soon he'd be back with his five children in the Antelope Valley, altogether unaware of what awaited him.

December 13th, 2005.

Sheriff's deputies staked out a tidy, low-slung apartment block in the Joshua neighborhood of Lancaster, California.

It had been cold overnight, dipped below freezing.

And then, as they watched, the desert sun cleared the terracotta rooftops.

And there he was, Raymond Jennings, oblivious, unaware, walked to his car, stepped in, and drove away.

Then I asked Detective Longshore.

Tell me how the arrest occurred.

I had him under surveillance.

He was living in an apartment with his wife and several children.

And every time the surveillance team would see him, he'd be with his children.

And I didn't want to arrest him in front of his kids.

It's something we just don't like to do.

And so we kept the surveillance up, and on a given morning, he left by himself.

And we took him down to a traffic stop and was ordered out at gunpoint by the uniformed deputies.

And his statement to them was,