KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A 36-year-old man who was arrested after a six-hour standoff at a Kalispell hotel in which he barricaded himself in a bathroom with a 17-year-old Idaho boy has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The Daily Inter Lake (http://bit.ly/yIddl3 ) reports District Judge Stewart Stadler sentenced Thomas Mulligan on Thursday. Mulligan previously entered an Alford plea to charge of kidnapping, not admitting guilt but acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him.
Authorities say Mulligan, who was arrested Dec. 31, 2010, after a SWAT team stormed the hotel room, met the teen on the Internet. They say the two were traveling in a vehicle that was stolen from the boy’s grandmother in Filer, Idaho.
Mulligan, who has previous convictions of theft, burglary and kidnapping, was initially being pursued because of an alleged parole violation in Oregon.
