CALIFORNIA MAN GETS LIFE SENTENCE
Newsday/Nation Briefs
Kenneth Parnell, 72, kidnapped 7 year old Steven Staynor 30 years ago as he walked home fromschool. Parnell was arrested in January 2003 for allegedly trying to buy a 4 year old child for$500. He was convicted in 1980 of kidnapping Steven and a 5 year old boy and served 5 years and 1month in prison for the crimes, less time than Steven was kept from his family. The 1972 kidnappingof Steven and his return to his family years later was chronicled in the book and 1989 movie IKnow My First Name is Steven. Steven was held for seven years, renamed Dennis Parnell and had beenpassed off as Parnell's son. In 1980 Parnell kidnapped another boy, Timothy White, who was 5 yearsold at the time. Steven was 14 when he went to police, bringing White with him. He said he had beenmolested by Parnell and didn't want the younger boy to suffer the same abuse. In 1989 Steven waskilled in a motorcycle crash, a year after Parnell was released on parole. A man convicted ofhit-and-run driving in the accident was sentenced to 90 days in jail. The Stayner family facedanother high-profile tragedy a decade later when Steven's brother, Cory, was convicted of killingfour women at Yosemite National Park, where he had been a hotel handyman. He was sentenced to deathlast year.
Parnell was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison yesterday for trying to buy theboy.
(San Francisco, California)
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