Hoaxer California mom, Sherri Papini, 39, sentenced to 18 months in prison with $300,000 fine for staging her own kidnap, as Judge extends 8-months prison time sought by prosecutors
‘Kidnap faker’ Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, California, today was sentenced to 10 months more than prosecution was seeking in a Sacramento court by senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb i
The married mother-of-two told police in 2016 that she was abducted in her Redding, California, neighborhood by two Latina women and held captive for 22 days
Sherri Papini, the California mother prosecutors said copied the plot of ‘Gone Girl’ and staged her disappearance
Shas been sentenced to 18 months in prison in addition, with and three years supervised release
Papini must pay $300,000 in restitution and must surrender by Nov 8
Prosecutors in the case were only seeking eight months prison time for the mother of two
In April Papini pled guilty to faking her kidnapping and to lying to the FBI
Judge Shubb speculated that Papini would still be telling lies today had she not been caught in her web of deceit.
California mother Sherri Papini, who mimicked the plot of Gone Girl, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Papini, 39, must also pay $300,000 in restitution, according to senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. The prosecution were only seeking an eight month prison term and three years supervised release for Papini.
During sentencing, Judge Shubb speculated that Papini would still be telling lies today had she not been caught in her web of deceit.
The mother of two must turned herself in by November 8.
In addition to her prison sentence, Papini will undergo 36 months of probation.
She had pled guilty to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI. Papini could have faced five years for lying to the feds and 20 years for faking her own kidnapping, with constitutes mail fraud.
Papini disappeared from her Redding, California, neighborhood while out for a jog.
The married mom-of-two returned weeks later almost hundreds of miles away ‘dazed, battered and bruised,’ and insisted she was held captive for 22 days by two Latina women.
When the elements of the kidnap story di not line up, investigators began to uncover Papini’s past leading up to her disappearance, including the involvement of her ex-lover who prosecutors said she convinced to help her by spinning allegations of domestic abuse against her husband, Keith Papini.
During a sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that it was vital that Papini serve out her full sentence in prison. In court filings they wrote: ‘There needs to be just punishment for her conduct.’
While her lawyers argued that a house arrest would be more appropriate, in addition to one month behind bars.
The convict was also ordered to pay a fine of $300,000 to cover the losses incurred by the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.
Leaving the court alongside his client after the sentencing hearing, Papini’s defense attorney William Portanova, told the media: ‘The court did not miss the mark. He knew her heart by the time he sentenced her. He’s trusting her with what we consider to be a fair sentence even though it’s longer than we wished.’
He went on: ‘We know that under the next several years of supervised release, Sherri will continue to demonstrate to the court that he’s made the right bet.’
When Papini resurfaced weeks after her disappearance, seemingly disoriented, battered and bruised, she told the hoax of her kidnap by two women and convinced the world of her story before she was formally charged earlier this year.
Investigators began to uncover Papini’s past leading up to her disappearance, including the involvement of her ex-lover prosecutors said she convinced to help her amid domestic abuse allegations against her husband.
The mother of two was arrested in March after fooling the whole world about her disappearance.
Her husband reported her disappearance in November 2016 when she failed to pick their children up from school. Her cell phone and earbuds were later found on the running track she used.
Weeks later she was found tortured and starved by her captors, whose faces she never saw, before being dumped by the side of the road on Thanksgiving.
Police and the world were on the lookout for Sherri Papini when she went missing in 2016.
When the missing married mother-of-two resurfaced weeks later, she told the hoax of her disappearance and convinced the world of her story before she was formally charged earlier this year.
Furthermore, she stuck to her made-up story for weeks even after federal agents confronted her with contradictory facts, until she was inexorably trapped.
Ultimately, appearing at the federal courthouse in Sacramento, Calif., on April 13, accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, Sherri Papini pled guilty to her crimes. Sentencing was scheduled for today, September 19.
When Papini was found, she had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred ‘brand’ on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm.
Her signature blonde hair had been cut.
Papini’s antics were eerily similar to those of the main character in Gillian Flynn’s smash-hit thriller novel Gone Girl, which was later turned into a thriller starring Rosamund Pike as a vanishing wife.
Police said she made up the whole story to get attention and was staying with her ex-boyfriend for the 22 days she went missing.
Papini convinced James Reyes, her ex-boyfriend, to pick her up and drive her to his Southern California apartment after telling him her husband Keith was ‘abusing’ her.
Reyes, 37, previously confessed to the plot after being identified by DNA found on Sherri’s clothes through a familial match.
He told police how he and Sherri dated in 2006 and ‘loved’ each other. She randomly got in touch with him in 2016 again, he said, and told him that her husband was abusing her.
Papini and Reyes then spoke on pre-paid cell phones, arranging for her to run away for months before November 2, when he collected her from Redding and the alleged hoax started.
The ex-boyfriend admitted to investigators that he thought their relationship would become romantic once they were back at his apartment in Costa Mesa, but that it never did.
Instead, Sherri took over his bedroom and he slept on the couch. She locked herself away in the room, starved herself and cut off her hair then started inflicting injuries on herself.
Reyes who was unaware of the media storm that had brewed over the three weeks because he did not have a TV.
He told investigators his ex convinced him to brand her with a hot tool, then asked him to drive her seven hours north, back to her home in Redding, on November 24. He also said Papini caused her self-inflicted injuries while staying with him.
Keith Papini, the hoaxer’s husband said he was duped by his wife and later filed for divorce on April 15, two days after she pled guilty to faking her own kidnapping.
The couple married in 2009 and share two children, Tyler, 8, and 10-year-old Violet.
Sherri Papini arrives court for her sentencing
In a statement earlier this year, Papini apologized for the pain she caused her family and friends.
‘I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I’ve caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story, and those who worked so hard to try to help me.
‘I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done,’ Papini said in the statement, as reported by ABC10.
Papini had received psychiatric care for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return – more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution.
She is ordered to repay $128,00 in disability payments, and a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $49,000 to help the family.
In their criminal complaint, police detail how Papini and her husband spent money donated to them by strangers on her therapy and on improving their home.
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