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U.S.|Man Who Kidnapped Woman From Bloomberg’s Colorado Ranch Gets 22 Years in Prison
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/us/colorado-man-sentenced-bloomberg-housekeeper-kidnapping.html
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Joseph Beecher was intent on killing the media mogul and inquired about his family before taking a housekeeper hostage, officials said.
Dec. 6, 2024, 6:27 p.m. ET
A man was sentenced on Thursday to 22 years in prison for breaking into a Colorado ranch belonging to Michael R. Bloomberg in 2022 and kidnapping a housekeeper in what prosecutors described as a failed plan to kill the media executive and former New York City mayor, the authorities said.
In sentencing the man, Joseph L. Beecher, 51, of Craig, Colo., who was convicted in August of several crimes, including kidnapping and using or carrying a firearm during a violent crime, Judge Alan B. Johnson of the United States District Court in Cheyenne, Wyo., also ordered that he be on supervised release for five years after his prison term.
On Feb. 2, 2022, Mr. Beecher, who had just been fired from his job at an apartment complex where he lived, drove to Mr. Bloomberg’s ranch, about 70 miles away, and rammed his truck through the main gate, prosecutors said.
Mr. Beecher then kidnapped a housekeeper at gunpoint and forced her to drive hundreds of miles before he checked them into a motel at Cheyenne, Wyo., more than 230 miles away, prosecutors said.
There, they said, a SWAT team arrested Mr. Beecher and rescued the housekeeper the following morning after he repeatedly threatened her and forced her to sleep in the same bed as him.
Before going to Mr. Bloomberg’s ranch on Feb. 2, officials said, Mr. Beecher stole two firearms and ammunition from the home of his boss and landlord, the authorities believe.
