Kidnapper gets 170-year federal sentence

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Michael Devlin, the Missouri man who admitted kidnapping two boys, keeping one a virtual prisoner for four years, received a 170-year federal sentence Friday.

Prosecutors asked a judge to impose a 30-year term, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The federal charges included six counts of child pornography and one of transporting a child across state lines.

Devlin received 74 life sentences in Missouri state court.

In court, attorney Michael Kielty, asking for a shorter sentence, described his client as a "pretty good guy." He later explained that Devlin did not kill his two victims and that he agreed to plead guilty, sparing the boys and their families the trauma of a trial.

Devlin's second kidnapping led to his arrest in January. Investigators discovered a 15-year-old boy living with him in his Kirkwood apartment who proved to be Shawn Hornbeck, snatched four years earlier as he rode his bike in Richwoods.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway applauded the judge for exceeding her requested sentence.

"My only disappointment is that Michael Devlin has but one life to serve his sentence," she said.