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BREAKING: Aunt sentenced to 25 years for kidnapping nephew, leaving him in cold
by Kevin Murphy, Special to the Times · News · October 27, 2014
MADISON, Wis. — A Colorado woman convicted of kidnapping her half-sister’s infant boy last February and leaving him in sub-zero weather at a West Branch gas station was sentenced Monday in federal court to 25 years in prison.
In imposing the mandatory-minimum sentence, District Judge James Peterson called Kristin R. Smith, 31, of Denver, “a liar” whose life has been “a pattern of fraud and deceit,” that still continues.
Smith hatched an elaborate scheme after learning that half-sister, Brianna Marshall, was pregnant, said Peterson. It involved Smith befriending Marshall, who she hadn’t seen in years, and faking her own pregnancy so she would have “a cover story” when she would return to Denver with a new baby.
Smith’s pregnancy deceit included posting a fraudulent sonogram and a false birth announcement on her Facebook page.
On Feb. 4, Smith showed up unannounced at a Beloit hospital here Marshall had just given birth to Kayden Powell. Marshall had been residing with relatives and her boyfriend, Brian Powell, but they were thrown out of the relative’s residence when Marshall came home from the hospital, according to trial testimony.
Smith offered to relocate Marshall and the baby to Denver. Smith left for Denver with newborn Kayden in her SUV early on Feb. 5 without telling Marshall or Powell, jurors were told at trial.
Within a few hours, Marshall and Powell realized the baby and Smith were gone but believed another relative took the child. Smith did not tell her frantic half-sister that the baby was with her. Instead, after talking with Beloit police, Smith agreed to stop in West Branch and talk with local police about the missing infant, according to trial testimony.
Before talking to police, Smith placed the days-old infant in a plastic tote behind a BP gas station and drove to a nearby gas station where she told police she did not know where Kayden was. West Branch police detained Smith on a Texas arrest warrant and recovered Kayden about 30 hours later.
“You put his life at risk and would have let him die to avoid detection,” Peterson told Smith.
The disappearance of their baby also created a nightmare for Marshall and Powell they may never get over, Peterson said.
Smith told Peterson that she accepts full responsibility for her actions especially “the idiocy” of the night she left with Kayden.
She acknowledged causing Marshall “the worst hours of your life … and the heartache and pain.”
“I admit my actions were tactless, harmful and inappropriate … but I was only trying to help a sister and her child,” Smith told the court.
In a reference to Marshall, Smith also said she still “cherishes our sisterhood.”
That apparently caused Marshall, who had previously declined to make a statement, to tell Peterson, “Nothing (Smith) can say means anything to me. She says she’s sorry but I don’t believe her.”
After court, Marshall said she could not see her feelings for Smith ever changing.
“It’s still going to be hatred,” she said.
As 8-month-old Kayden grabbed at microphones during an after-sentencing news conference, Marshall said he has been “doing fine,” since his kidnapping.
“He too smart (to be bothered) by it,” Marshall said.
Smith was sexually, emotionally and mentally abused as a child, both Smith and her attorney, Matthew Noel, said. That did not excuse or lessen her responsibility for the crime, but Peterson said it factored into his not sentencing Smith above the minimum prison term. She had faced a maximum of life in prison.
Peterson ordered Smith to undergo a mental health assessment and treatment. Peterson also recommended her incarceration at a federal prison near Fort Worth, Texas, which has appropriate programs and is near to where her four children will be living.
Smith will be on supervised release for 10 years following her prison sentence.
Smith has had prior convictions for issuing worthless checks, using a stolen credit card and loan fraud. She enlisted in the military using another person’s identity and served a year until the Department of Defense learned of the fraud. She allegedly falsified a military document to falsely state she was being deployed overseas in order to be released from an apartment lease in Texas. That charge was pending when she was taken into custody at the gas station in West Branch.
Before sentencing, Peterson denied Smith’s request for a new trial or acquittal.
After court Noel said he would appeal Smith’s conviction.
Asked if he thought his client was innocence, Noel replied, “I think she was overcharged.”
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