Immigrant Pleads Guilty to Kidnaping

Farhad Rahimi Kashani pleaded guilty in South Bay Municipal Court Friday to a charge of kidnaping a 1-year-old Palos Verdes Estates boy and his baby sitter and holding them for ransom in a van for more than 60 hours last week.

The 26-year-old Iranian immigrant faces a mandatory life sentence for the abduction at knifepoint of Clayton Hall Anthony and Kathleen Gilbeau, 56, on a Palos Verdes Estate street shortly before noon on Wednesday, Aug. 27.

FBI agents arrested Kashani at 9 p.m. last Friday as he picked up two shopping bags containing $100,000 in ransom money left beside a trash dumpster at Carl’s Jr. at Century and Aviation boulevards.

Despite being caught red-handed, Kashani refused during hours of questioning to disclose whether his victims were alive or where they were being held. When questioned by San Pedro restaurant owner Bahman (Bob) Sanjabi in his native Farsi, Kashani only revealed that they were being held in his van.

The kidnap victims were found at 3 a.m. last Saturday. Gilbeau had been bound, gagged and blindfolded. She was suffering from “emotional distress” but otherwise neither the woman, nor little Clayton, had been harmed.

Kashani was arraigned Wednesday on two counts of kidnaping for ransom, one count of kidnaping for robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded not guilty to all charges but changed his plea to guilty to one count in a post-arraignment hearing on Friday.

Under terms of a plea agreement, all counts but kidnaping for ransom will be dropped at the time of sentencing on Oct. 3 in Torrance Superior Court. Although a mandatory life sentence is required for the crime, he will be eligible for parole.

According to Sanjabi, Kashani said he came to the United States about eight years ago and lived in Texas before moving to Southern California. The restaurant owner said Kashani indicated that he had lived in his van for about two years and was “desperate.”

Kashani apparently chose his victims at random.