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Escapee Convicted of Kidnaping, Terrorizing Arizona Family : Kinslow Gets 2 Life Terms Plus 30 Years in Prison

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Times Staff Writer

Amid extremely heavy courthouse security, a convicted triple murderer and escapee who kidnaped and terrorized an Arizona family was sentenced Monday to two life terms plus 30 years by a federal judge.

Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real also ordered James Neal Kinslow, 28, to pay $250,000 in restitution to the 11-year-old Arizona girl he kidnaped and molested before she escaped from a Garden Grove motel room last July. He also was ordered to pay an additional $100,000 to her mother.

Kinslow, who already is serving two life terms for the 1978 murder of a New Mexico woman and her two daughters, was convicted earlier this month of five counts of kidnaping, four firearms violations and one count each of interstate transportation of a minor for sexual purposes, and one count of taking a stolen vehicle across state lines.

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Wants to Appeal

Real ordered Kinslow to begin serving his two life sentences on the federal kidnaping charges after he completes his New Mexico life sentences in the year 2022.

Kinslow told Real that he wants to appeal his conviction and asked Real’s clerk to file the necessary papers because he did not have the $5 filing fee.

Kinslow would not be eligible for parole on the federal sentence for 25 years, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Nancy Wieben Stock. She estimated that Kinslow would be about 84 before he is eligible for parole.

Stock said Kinslow will be returned to a New Mexico state prison to finish his first two life sentences. However, since he has a history of prison escape, she said she may seek Kinslow’s transfer to a federal penitentiary, where security is tighter.

‘Pervading Hysteria’

“It appears that the government has asked for the longest sentence in (judicial) district history,” said H. Dean Steward, Kinslow’s court-appointed federal defender. Steward said the government’s request for a life sentence was excessive and based on the “pervading hysteria” in this case.

On July 4, Kinslow and six other New Mexico prison inmates escaped. He remained in hiding until July 24, when he broke in to the Flagstaff home of William and Mary Blades, according to a federal grand jury indictment and court testimony.

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Once inside, he tied up the family, raped the mother and threatened to kill them before forcing them to accompany him to Barstow, Calif. Taking Malina, the Blades’ 11 year-old daughter, with him, he left the rest of the family tied up in a Barstow motel.

Kinslow drove to Garden Grove and molested the girl before setting her free, according to court testimony.

The girl immediately contacted police who, along with FBI agents, arrested him in a motel.

Steward, Kinslow’s attorney, wanted to tell the jury that Kinslow kidnaped the family because he needed “insurance” against a “shoot-to-kill” order issued by the New Mexico governor after the escape. Judge Real, however, ruled that he could not use that defense.

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