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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Jimmy Guard has been sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for allegedly trying to abduct a Provo girl while he was out on bail after purportedly attempting to kidnap two Springville girls.
Fourth District Judge Lynn Davis heard arguments about Guard's tough childhood and said he had seen a number of pictures of the 28-year-old man holding small children, images he called "very endearing."
Davis said Guard came from a broken home, and his mother abandoned him when he was 16 and left him to fend for himself in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Despite the circumstances, Guard managed to avoid any run-ins with the law, and, "That's a pretty high accomplishment," Davis said.
But after coming to Utah to live with his cousins, Guard was arrested by Springville police for allegedly trying to get two girls to get in his car.
While out on bail, he allegedly tried to kidnap a 9-year-old Provo girl, Candie McBride, who testified she fought him off. He was convicted of child kidnapping in the Provo case.
At his sentencing Thursday, he maintained his innocence in both cases.
"I believe in an afterlife," he told Davis. "There will come a time we'll be able to see behind these walls. When this life is over, you will know for sure that I am not (responsible) for kidnapping."
Prosecutors sought the 10 years to life sentence, while the defense suggested it be six years to life.
Guard is to be sentenced Aug. 30 in the Springville case. He pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted kidnapping and two counts of attempted sodomy were dropped.
Guard said items found in his car at the Springville incident, including a hatchet, latex gloves, duct tape and condoms, are evidence of a moral deficiency in his life, not a devious nature.
In sentencing Guard to 10 years to life in prison, Davis gave him credit for nearly two years of time already served.
Davis also dismissed the request that Guard register as a sex offender and go through sex-offender therapy.
"This is not a sex offense case, this is a child kidnapping case," Davis said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
