El Cajon
A 56-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of kidnaping in the bizarre abduction of a family friend who is the daughter of a former McDonald’s Corp. advertising executive.
J. C. (Bob) Aler of Point Loma admitted to Superior Court Judge William Mudd that he forced Sarah Zien to travel from San Diego to El Cajon under threat or force Sept. 11.
As part of a plea-bargain agreement, Aler will be sentenced to the maximum 13 years, and a charge a kidnaping for ransom--which carries a penalty of life in prison--was reduced to one of simple kidnaping. The sentencing hearing will be Jan. 25.
Zien, 26, was abducted downtown by a man in disguise and was held at a vacant house, where she was chained to a toilet overnight. During her 28-hour ordeal, a series of phone calls was made to her parents, Jim and Lois Zien, demanding $400,000.
Zien, a graduate student at UCLA, escaped after she convinced Aler that she needed daily medication and had to travel to a drugstore.
Aler, who owns Industrial Plastics & Assembly Corp. on Magnolia Avenue in El Cajon, had known the Ziens socially for several years.
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