Parnell Guilty Of Attempting To Buy A Child - "I Know My Name Is Steven" Kidnapper, Molestor

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Kenneth Parnell, infamous for the 1972 kidnapping of Steven Stayner, was convicted Monday of trying to buy a child last year in what a prosecutor described as the would-be "last hurrah" of a long criminal career.

Parnell, 72, was arrested in January 2003 on charges of trying to persuade a woman to get him a young boy for $500.

A jury deliberated for less than two hours Monday before finding Parnell guilty.

Prosecutor Tim Wellman said outside the courtroom that Parnell could face up to life imprisonment under the state's "three strikes" law, but the defense plans to argue that the prior cases are too old to be relevant.

In addition to the Stayner kidnapping, Parnell was convicted of kidnapping 5-year-old Timmy White in 1980, serving five years for those two abductions. Parnell also has a 1951 conviction for committing a lewd act on a minor.

"I think he is a poster child for the 'three strikes' law," Wellman said. "He has been committing felonies since he was 19 years old."

After the verdict, defense attorney Deborah Levy said she will ask the judge to dismiss one if not both of the prior kidnappings. In her closing argument earlier Monday, she urged jurors not to focus on Parnell's past.

"What happened 30-some years ago doesn't help us here today," Levy said.

Levy stressed that Parnell never used the word "kidnap" and suggested that he was simply interested in raising an abandoned boy.

But Wellman said Parnell is a lifelong predator, introducing testimony from the Stayner and White kidnappings as evidence. The prosecutor also noted that Parnell, who used a more vulgar term, asked for a child with a clean bottom. That, said Wellman, indicated a sinister purpose.

"The defendant is a danger at any age," Wellman said. "The defendant is a threat to children of any age."

There was no actual child in the 2003 case. The woman, Diane Stevens, cooperated with police in setting up a meeting at Parnell's Berkeley apartment in which she was to give him a birth certificate in exchange for $100 and then bring in a child for $400 more.

At the meeting, Stevens gave Parnell the paperwork in exchange for the money. Then police moved in and arrested Parnell.

Levy portrayed Stevens as holding a grudge against Parnell over his treatment of her brother, who had been Parnell's caretaker but lost that position after falling ill with cancer.

But Wellman said Stevens was "honest to a fault."

In the Stayner and White kidnappings, Parnell was arrested shortly after White was abducted. The younger boy had asked Stayner to take him home and Stayner, by-then 14, took White to police, saying he didn't want the 5-year-old to go through the same ordeal he had.

Stayner's story was told in the book and TV movie "I Know My First Name is Steven."

Stayner died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. Another blow befell his family last year when Stayner's brother, Cary, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing four women in Yosemite National Park.

Steven Stayner's testimony at Parnell's earlier trial was read to jurors hearing the attempted child-buying charges, and White also testified about the old kidnapping.

Wellman finished his closing argument by showing jurors a black poster board with the numerals 1, 2 and 3 printed in stark white. Above the numbers were flaps of black paper that he ripped off one by one, showing first a smiling picture of Stayner before his kidnapping, then a picture showing White and finally a silhouette of a young child in motion.

Thanks to Stevens, Wellman said, there is no name attached to the third picture.

"The defendant was looking for one last hurrah," Wellman said. "One last Steven Stayner. One last Timmy White."

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