KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A man who refuses to reveal the whereabouts of his two children was sent to prison Friday for 10 years on an unrelated gun charge — a stiff sentence prosecutors hope will persuade him to talk.
Daniel Porter (search), 42, is awaiting trial in November on charges of kidnapping his children, who have been missing since last June, when he picked them up from his ex-wife, Tina, for a weekend visit. The youngsters were 7 and 8 at the time.
"Mr. Porter holds the keys to his jail cell," said prosecutor Mike Sanders said.
Porter was given a chance to speak Friday but said nothing, to the disappointment of his former wife.
"I want my children," she said. She sobbed as the sentence was announced.
Porter pleaded guilty in January to illegal gun possession by a felon.
"There seems to be no point at which Mr. Porter is willing to stop inflicting injury and pain on Mrs. Porter," U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith said. "It almost brings me to the point of tears to think of the pain that those kids are experiencing."
Defense attorney Laine Cardarella pleaded with the judge not to consider the kidnapping charges, and to punish Porter instead "for what's here in front of you."
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