'I held that baby as my own'

Jose Nicholas Tabata-Pereira could barely contain himself when he finally got to hold his daughter, Nicole.

He had missed her birth months earlier, playing winter baseball in his native Venezuela. He hugged and kissed the little girl all through the night.

But his joy was crushed the next day. Authorities told him his wife, Amalia, had stolen the girl from an immigrant family at the Plant City Health Department on March 23.

Sheriff's deputies said he broke down in tears when he was told the child wasn't his and that his wife had concocted the story.

"I had no idea," he told investigators. "I really thought I was a father. ... I can't believe she did this to me."

"I held that baby as my own. ... I held that baby as my own."

The investigative reports of that interview were among the 103 pages of documents prosecutors released Tuesday in the case against his wife.

Amalia Tabata-Pereira, 43, is charged with kidnapping, interference with parental custody and impersonating a public officer. She is in jail, unable to post bail of $750,000.

She is accused of taking 2-month-old Sandra Cruz-Francisco from the baby's mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco. Deputies said she posed as an immigration official who said she would help the baby's parents avoid deportation to Mexico.

Jose Tabata-Pereira, a profession baseball prospect, said he had no suspicions his wife wasn't pregnant.

He said she gained weight and went to doctor's appointments. He said he twice took her to the doctors when she was visiting him in Venezuela.

She even sent him photographs of the delivery. All the pictures, he said, were taken from below the waist.

He said she had a birth certificate. Deputies later found it was from a kit St. Joseph's Hospital routinely gave to new parents. The version Amalia had was six months out of date.

He said where the child would be born was a bone of contention within his family.

He said his parents wanted the child to be born in Puerto Rico, where the baby still would be an American citizen. He had prepaid all the medical costs there.

But Amalia Tabata-Pereira insisted the child be born in Florida, he said.

She left Venezuela in January. On Jan. 21 she called with the news of the daughter's delivery. She said she named the baby Nicole.

But shortly before Jose Tabata-Pereira was to return to the Pittsburgh Pirates' spring training facility in Bradenton, he said, his wife called and said death threats were being made against the baby from people in Venezuela.

He told her to hide the baby with a nanny, and they would figure out what to do when he arrived in Florida.

When he arrived in Bradenton in March, he said she told him the baby was still with a nanny. He said after the couple spent a few days alone, she went to get the child.

The next day, March 24, Amalia Tabata-Pereira turned herself in and returned the baby unharmed.

Jose Tabata-Pereira said it was the second time he thought he was becoming a father.

His wife told him she was carrying twins in 2007, a year after they met.

He wasn't with her during that pregnancy, forced to leave the country because of an expired visa.

Amalia told him the babies were stillborn in November 2007.

He couldn't return for the funeral but said his wife later took him to their graves.

He said they met in August 2006 at Mirage, a club on Hillsborough Avenue, when he was 18. He asked her to dance, and they exchanged telephone numbers.

At the time he was quite a catch, a prized prospect of the New York Yankees; an outfielder favorably compared to All-Star Manny Ramirez. He was traded to the Pirates last year.

Tabata-Pereira, 20, said she handled all the money in the marriage. He said he found out she was older than she said and had children from previous marriages, but it didn't matter because he was in love.