(Montreal) Gary Arnold, a Quebec man convicted of the 2020 kidnapping of an American couple from upstate New York, was sentenced Monday to 13 years in prison.
Judge Michel Pennou, of the Superior Court in Montreal, clarified Monday that taking into account the time already served in preventive detention, Arnold will still have to spend nine years, two months and six days in prison.
The Crown was seeking a 17-year sentence for Arnold, who was found guilty by a jury in February of five counts, including kidnapping, extortion and conspiracy to kidnap.
It was learned at trial that Arnold had been part of a plot to kidnap James and Sandra Helm, a couple in their 70s from Moira, New York. The suit argued the two American septuagenarians were abducted in a drug deal gone wrong involving their grandson.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sandra Helm (center), one of the victims
The defense had asked for 10 years in prison for Arnold, who argued during his trial that he acted under threat and knew nothing of the kidnapping plot.
The Crown claimed the two Americans were abducted as leverage by a group of men who wanted to collect 50 pounds of cocaine or 3.5 million in cash, since their grandson was arrested in Vermont six days earlier in possession of the drug.
The Helms had been abducted from their home and then smuggled into Canada and held in a cottage in Magog, in the Eastern Townships. They were finally released, safe and sound, by the Sûreté du Québec Tactical Intervention Group two days later, on September 29, 2020.