Arizona man gets prison in immigrant kidnapping
Associated Press - January 6, 2011 6:04 PM ET

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - An Arizona man whose cousin was killed by illegal border crossers in a botched kidnapping plan has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Pima County prosecutors said 26-year-old Armando Villalobos Cervantes was sentenced Thursday. He pleaded guilty last month to one count of kidnapping and prosecutors dismissed 18 other kidnapping charges and a first-degree murder charge.

The Arizona Daily Star says Cervantes and his cousin - 25-year-old Eleazar Garcia Valencia - came across a group of 19 border crossers on March 1 near Sasabe.

Valencia allegedly told the group he had just lost a load of marijuana and he needed to recoup the money by holding them for ransom. Prosecutors say Cervantes left Valencia in charge of the group briefly and they fatally beat his cousin.

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