Nebraska man sentenced for role in woman’s kidnapping of grandkids
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A Nebraska man who took part in a woman’s plan to kidnap her grandchildren was sentenced Wednesday on a weapons charge.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Tanner Joel Leichleiter of Tekamah to eight years in prison for being a drug user in possession of 10 firearms, including an assault rifle.
In April 2020, Nora Gilda Guevara-Triana asked Leichleiter to take her two grandchildren, ages 4 and 7, from Tekamah to Kansas to teach their mother a lesson, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Russell.
Authorities say he put the kids in a vehicle without shoes or car seats. He also had marijuana and 10 guns in the vehicle, within the reach of the children.
Leichleiter and the children were found after an Amber Alert.
The judge said Leichleiter had “no regard” for the children’s safety and called the case an extreme example of illegal weapons possession.
Leichleiter, 32, pleaded guilty in August.
Guevara-Tirana was convicted of kidnapping in August and sentenced to more than eight years in prison in February.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Tekamah Police Department and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and Wichita Police Department in Kansas.
