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CNN Live Today

Plea Deal Struck in Decades-Old Kidnapping Case

Aired June 18, 2002 - 15:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A story that we brought to you a number of years ago we now have a follow-up, believe it or not. Twenty years later a New Mexico couple on trial in a decade-old kidnapping case, we understand that some type of plea agreement was made with the DA.

Barry and Judith Smiley say they went to court, telling the panel that they saved their son Matthew from parents who couldn't raise him. That's why they kidnapped him. They've changed their names. They moved away. Well, they have turned themselves in, and now they've made some type of agreement with the DA.

Our Jason Carroll is on the phone. He's been covering this from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jason, what's the latest?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon Kyra.

I'm actually here in Queens, New York where this story really began many, many years ago. And I have to tell you there really is no happy ending to the story no matter who you talk to.

A judge today sentenced Barry Smiley to two to six years and his wife Judith to six months for kidnapping Matthew Propp when he was an infant 23 years ago. The couple answered guilty pleas as part of a plea agreement they had reached some time late yesterday. The Smileys were originally given custody of Matthew during an adoption proceeding back in 1979.

Matthew's biological mother agreed to that adoption, but his biological father did not agree, so a judge ruled that the adoption was not legal, and ordered the Smileys to return Matthew. But instead, as you said, the Smileys basically skipped town. They left New York. They changed their name to Propp and secretly ended up moving to New Mexico where they raised Matthew as their own, not telling him about his true identity until only about two years ago.

The couple arguing that they kept Matthew because he had some sort of a heart condition and they were concerned about the ability of his biological parents, basically, to care for him. But his biological father, Anthony Russini never stopped looking for his son, and says that this punishment is just. The Smileys ended up here basically because they grew tired of keeping their secret and basically they turned themselves in a little bit more than a year-and-a-half ago.

Judith Smiley telling me today just out of court that she said, you know we were tired -- we were tired of keeping the secret. We just wanted this whole thing to be over. Now, it finally is. Tomorrow the couple will go back to New Mexico. They'll get their affairs in order, then they're ordered to come back here in New York where they will be incarcerated.

In addition to their prison sentence, they also have to pay $100,000 to the Russini family for restitution -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Jason Carroll from Queens, New York. Thank you so much.

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