Southland : Hired Kidnaper of Boy Gets 15 Years

A man was sentenced today to 15 years in state prison for kidnaping a baby boy from his adoptive parents in Pacific Palisades and flying him cross-country to his natural parents in New Jersey.

Superior Court Judge John Reid imposed the maximum sentence on Jonathan Cosby, 29, convicted in March of a single kidnaping count with a special allegation that he was armed with a shotgun when he abducted the 13-month-old boy in 1987.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeanette Bernstein said the baby’s natural parents, Francis Kiefer, 42, and his wife, Bonnie, 43, of Moorestown, N.J., hired Cosby to kidnap their son from the boy’s adoptive parents, Kenneth and Barbara Smith of Pacific Palisades.