A 4th District judge has fined a Pleasant Grove man $100 for his participation in the kidnapping of an elderly Provo man July 16, 1987.
Judge John Backlund fined Raeldon Palmer $500 and sentenced him to 50 days in jail, but suspended all but $100 of that sentence.Palmer, 46, and his wife, Joellen, 45, originally were charged with kidnapping, a second-degree felony, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, a third-degree felony, respectively, in the abduction of John Max Taylor, then 79.
Mr. Palmer ended up pleading no contest to a lesser charge of misdemeanor attempted conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Charges against his wife were dismissed.
The Palmers allegedly helped Taylor's estranged wife, Ann G. Taylor, New York, to kidnap her husband from relatives Mrs. Taylor said were holding him against his will. According to police reports, Mrs. Taylor hired the Palmers through a repossession and collection service they operate to keep Mr. Taylor under surveillance and to kidnap him.
The Taylors were married at the time but have since divorced.
In September, a jury found Mrs. Taylor guilty of second-degree felony kidnapping. She was given a suspended prison sentence of one to 15 years and a $5,000 fine. She was placed on three years unsupervised probation and has since returnedto New York.