NATIONAL BRIEFING / MASSACHUSETTS
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A German man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and spun fantastic stories about himself during three decades in the United States was convicted of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter and was sentenced to four to five years in prison.
Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, snatched the girl on a Boston street during a supervised visit last July and took her to Baltimore. His ex-wife has legal custody of the girl.
The jurors, who began deliberating Monday, rejected the theory put forth by Gerhartsreiter’s lawyers that he was suffering from a delusional disorder and was legally insane.
Gerhartsreiter also was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for ordering the driver of an SUV to pull away with a social worker clinging to the door.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives have declared him a “person of interest” in the disappearance and suspected killing of a San Marino couple in 1985.
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