Christopher Fink's stringy blond hair bounced slightly as he spoke into the microphone.
"I mean what I say — that I have changed, and I only want an opportunity to make things right," Fink told 3rd District Judge Roger Bean Monday. "I just don't want to be the kind of person that I was."
Fink will have some time to think about his professed change since he malnourished his son, David, then kidnapped him from Primary Children's Medical Center on Sept. 19, 1998.
Bean sent Fink to prison for 18 months Monday, giving him credit for the 404 days he's already served, and placed him on three years probation.
After the sentence, Fink's mother, Cheryl Gardner, insisted Fink did not intentionally harm his son.
"The only thing that Chris did was take his baby out of the hospital and try to protect him," Gardner said. "He wasn't advocating to starve his child.
"Chris is very loving and tender with children," Gardner added. "He'd never harm a child."
Inside the courtroom, Fink told Bean of the threats and abuse he endured from several inmates while at the prison for his 60-day diagnostic evaluation.
"This has changed him a lot," said Fink's attorney, David Biggs.
Whether or not Fink changes remains to be seen. After his release from jail, Fink must enter a treatment program and take any necessary medication to deal with what doctors and prosecutors call a "major thought disorder."
"He's saying all the right things," said prosecutor Dane Nolan. "But some of the things that he did at the diagnostic unit make me wonder."
Fink wrote a letter to the diagnostic unit telling them how they could improve their program, Nolan said.
"That is so typically you from what I know of this case," Bean told Fink. "You seem to have to do things in a dramatic way, calling attention to yourself."
Fink and his now ex-wife, Kyndra Lynn Lee, sparked a nationwide manhunt when they kidnapped their son from Primary Children's Medical Center and spent the next couple of weeks on the run from the law.
Nolan said doctors characterized Fink as "grandiose, self-centered and suspicious" but added that Fink isn't totally to blame for his conduct.
"He had a very chaotic upbringing from what I can tell," Nolan said. "I think his family had failed him. It's not all his fault where he is right now."
Gardner, who attended her son's sentencing with Fink's brother and sister, didn't completely agree with that assessment.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," Gardner said. "In some cases that may be true. In some cases it may not be true. We're here for him now."
When asked if Lee, formerly known as Kyndra Fink, was to blame for the boy's poor health, Gardner replied, "I won't say that."
Lee, who pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to child abuse, a second-degree felony, and assault causing substantial bodily injury, a class A misdemeanor, will be sentenced April 24.
Lee filed for divorce on Dec. 18, 1998, and Commissioner Susan Bradford approved the divorce on Feb. 4. Neither Fink nor Lee has custody of their two sons, and Bean ordered Fink have no contact with his children or his ex-wife.
Bean admonished Fink to "realize that maybe you don't know it all."
"There's a lot of help around for all this — take advantage of it," Bean added. "Don't be so prideful that you won't let people help you."