Local News in Brief : Kidnaping Plea Entered
A man allegedly hired by a New Jersey couple to abduct their 13-month-old son from his adoptive parents in Pacific Palisades has pleaded no contest to a kidnaping charge.
Jonathan Cosby, 28, entered his surprise plea in the middle of his Superior Court trial Tuesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 1, when a child-stealing charge will be dismissed as part of a plea bargain.
Prosecutors said Cosby was hired by a New Jersey couple, Bonnie and Frank Kiefer, to abduct their 13-month-old son from the home of his adoptive parents in Pacific Palisades last December. Prosecutors said Cosby, armed with a shotgun, rifled through the possessions of Kenneth and Barbara Smith to make it appear as though a robbery had occurred, then took the boy and returned him to the Kiefers in Moorestown, N.J. The couple was arrested by the FBI in New Jersey two days later.
Kidnaping and child-stealing charges against Frank Kiefer, 41, were dismissed in March at the end of a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Municipal Court. Bonnie Kiefer, 42, faces a pending trial on the same charges.
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