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'Clark Rockefeller': Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter guilty verdict

by amyjudd | June 12, 2009 at 08:58 am

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Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, the German conman who posed as wealthy family member Clark Rockefeller for decades has been found guilty of kidnapping his daughter, and also assaulting a social worker.

Sentencing will be handed down at 2pm today, and Gerhartsreiter could receive up to five years for the kidnapping and up to ten for the assault. Prosecutors are arguing for the maximum sentences.

Gerhartsreiter's lawyers argued that the man was insane and suffered from delusions when he kidnapped his daughter, Reigh 'Snooks' Boss in July 2008. He was found not guilty for giving the law a false name and also not guilty of a second assault charge.

Though he entered the courtroom with a smirk on his face, he showed little emotion during the reading of the verdict and once mouthed "Oh s***" after the second guilty verdict.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter is an illegal immigrant in the United States as he came from Bavaria on a student visa, so he will face deportation after serving his sentence on American soil.

Gerhartsreiter is also being eyed as a potential suspect in the 1985 disappearance and possible murder of a San Marino couple. Gerhartsreiter, who used the name Christopher Chichester at the time, was living in the couple’s guesthouse when they disappeared.

Gerhartsreiter first appeared in the United States in the late-1907s as a foreign-exchange student in Berlin, Conn., and later moved to Wisconsin where he married a woman to procure a green card. After that, he moved to California where he went by Christopher Chichester.