A woman whose kidnapping of a baby earlier this year led to passage of a new law has been found guilty of false imprisonment and felony burglary. A judge has found Tammy Roberson not guilty of felonious restraint, a more serious charge, because the prosecution did not prove the kidnapping exposed the child to a substantial risk of serious injury. Roberson posed as a nurse at a Sedalia hospital where she stole one-month-old Jesse Peaster while his mother was in a hospital exercise room. The child was not harmed. He was found a day later at Roberson’s home in Kansas City. The case led the legislature to pass a new definition of kidnapping. Roberson will be sentenced in January. She could get 15 years in prison.
