The State - News from April 26, 1989

Tara Burke, who was kidnaped from a Concord parking lot and held for 10 months in 1982, told a judge in San Francisco that the possibility her abductor could be freed from prison “scares me. I hope he never gets out,” Tara, now 9, testified at a resentencing hearing for Alex Cabarga. A state Court of Appeal directed that Cabarga’s 208-year sentence be reduced so that he might eventually be paroled. The girl’s testimony followed that of her 16-year-old brother, Jeremy, who asked Judge Robert Dossee to keep Cabarga, 24, behind bars until his sister recovers from her ordeal as a captive of Cabarga and Luis (Tree Frog) Johnson, who drew a 527-year sentence. Tara said she is still afraid of her captors. Despite the fact they are in prison, she said she sleeps with the lights on and is unable to confront her experience with a therapist.