Abductor of Child Given Life Sentence

Describing kidnaping as a repulsive crime, a Los Angeles federal judge sentenced John Robert Altig to life in prison Monday for abducting a 19-month-old girl near her Venice home in 1981 and taking her to Alaska, where she was found nearly four years later.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Matt Byrne Jr. against the 59-year-old transient is in addition to a 16-year term Altig received in Alaska for molesting the child before he was arrested by authorities last January.

While acknowledging that he could only impose punishment under federal kidnaping statutes, Byrne used what discretion he had in handing down the stiff sentence.

Money Penalty

In addition to life imprisonment, the judge ordered Altig to pay $18,500 as restitution to the child and her family under the federal Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982. The money would be used to pay for psychiatric counseling for the girl and to repay the family for the thousands of dollars spent trying to locate her, federal officials said.

“Few crimes are as repulsive . . . as kidnaping,” Byrne told Altig as he pronounced sentence. “Surely, you must have known that.”

Altig would be eligible for parole on the federal charge in 12 years.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Nancy Wieben Stock, had sought harsher punishment--urging Byrne to impose a determinate sentence that would result in a later parole date.

Altig, who told Alaskan authorities at the time of his arrest in Anchorage that the girl was his illegitimate daughter, Crystal Morgan, has recanted earlier confessions that he molested her, Stock said.

In court, Altig’s lawyer, Federal Public Defender Marilyn Butler, acknowledged that the girl was molested. But she said Altig did not know who was responsible.

Emotional Problems

Court documents said that the girl, now 5, is apparently suffering from “chronic post-traumatic stress disorder with all of its nightmarish symptoms.”

The documents added:

“Significantly, Elvia is currently classified as an ‘unsocialized’ child, who ‘doesn’t even know how to play.’ ”

The documents added that sex-abuse experts, who have examined the girl, have concluded that the ordeal has “literally robbed her of her childhood.”

The restitution--to be paid until the child turns 21--will come in monthly payments from Altig’s pension from his former employer, Farmers Insurance Co., savings and prison earnings, federal officials said.

Altig remained silent during Monday’s hearing until Byrne asked him if he had anything to say before sentence was imposed.

“I think it’s all been said, your honor,” was his reply.