Father to serve time for snatching daughter

A father who snatched his 2-year-old daughter and spirited her away to Florida will serve 60 days behind bars for custodial interference.

The defendant, Michael Lee Covino, entered a plea by information before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to the charge of custodial interference. He was ordered to serve 60 days of a two-year sentence.

Covino, the natural father of the girl, came to Warren County from his home in Edgewater, Fla., three weeks before the incident presumably to patch up matters between he and his estranged wife who had custody of the child.

However, without warning, Covino showed up at the child’s grandmother’s house to pick up his daughter while his estranged wife was at work. The grandmother allowed the child to go with Covino, assuming he was going to take the toddler to her mother. The assumption was proven wrong when the mother went home to find her daughter ? along with many of her daughter’s clothes and possessions ? gone.

An investigation revealed Covino had, in fact, taken the girl without permission, back to his home in Florida. Lawmen believe Covino took the child as a ploy to get the mother to re-join him in the Sunshine State. However, in doing so, he violated the law by taking the girl without permission of the custodial parent and by taking the child across state lines, something which can also be prosecuted on the federal level.