Sherri Papini leaves federal court after federal judge William Shubb sentenced her to 18 months in federal prison, in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Federal prosecutors had asked that she be sentenced to eight months in prison for faking her own kidnapping in 2016. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) A Northern California mother of two was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for faking her kidnapping so she could get back at an ex-boyfriend, prompting a three-week, multi-state manhunt before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving in 2016. Sherri Papini, 40, pleaded guilty last spring as part of a deal that requires her to pay more than $300,000 in restitution. Court officials and Papini’s attorney had recommended that she spend one month in custody and seven months on supervised home detention. But Senior U.S. District Judge William Schump said he chose to impose the 18-month sentence to deter others. The judge said he took into account the seriousness of the offense and “the sheer number of people affected”. Papini, who was emotional throughout the proceedings, quietly replied, “Yes, sir,” when the judge asked if she understood the sentence. She previously broke down in tears as she gave evidence in court taking responsibility and admitting her guilt. “As painful as it is,” Papini accepts her sentence as part of her recovery, defense attorney William Portanova said after the hearing. Portanova previously said Papini was distraught and ashamed and would have to serve most of her sentence at home. Prosecutors, however, said it was imperative that she serve her entire term in prison. The judge ordered her to report to jail on November 8. “The prank of Papini’s kidnapping was deliberate, well-planned and elaborate,” prosecutors wrote in their court filing. And she was still lying to people about being kidnapped months after she pleaded guilty in April to staging the kidnapping and lying to the FBI about it, they wrote. “The nation is watching the outcome of Papini’s sentencing hearing,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Veronica Alegria and Shelley Weger wrote. “The public needs to know that there will be more than a slap on the wrist for committing financial fraud and making false statements to law enforcement, particularly when those false statements result in the expenditure of significant resources and involve innocent people.” . “Outwardly sweet and tender, but capable of intense deception … Mrs. Papini’s chameleon personalities led her to simultaneously crave family security and the freedom of youth,” Portanova wrote in his court response. So, “chasing an irrational fantasy,” Portanova said the married mother fled to an ex-boyfriend in Southern California, nearly 600 miles south of her home in Redding. He dropped her off along Interstate 5 about 150 miles (240 kilometers) from her home after saying he wanted to go home. Bystanders found her with bandages on her body, a swollen nose, a blurry “brand” on her right shoulder, bruises and rashes all over her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. All of the injuries were self-inflicted and designed to substantiate her story of being kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women while out jogging. The wounds were a manifestation of her “volatile masochism” and “self-inflicted penance,” Portanova wrote. And once it started, “every lie called for another lie.” Prosecutors said Papini’s ruse hurt more than just her and her family. “An entire community believed the hoax and lived in fear that Hispanic women were roaming the streets to kidnap and sell women,” they wrote. Prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence at the lower end of the sentence in exchange for Papini’s guilty plea. This was set to be between eight and 14 months in custody, down from the maximum of 25 years for the two charges. She has offered no rationale for her actions, which even misled independent mental health experts who said her actions did not fit any standard diagnosis. “Papini’s painful early years twisted and froze her in a myriad of ways,” Portanova said in support of house arrest. With her deception finally revealed, she said: “It is hard to imagine a more brutal public exposure of a person’s broken inner self. At this point, the punishment is already severe and resembles a life sentence.” But prosecutors said her “past and mental health problems alone cannot explain all of her actions.” “Papini’s planning for her prank abduction was meticulous and began months in advance – it was not simply a reaction to a traumatic childhood,” they wrote. After her arrest in March, Papini received more than $30,000 worth of psychiatric treatment for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She charged the state’s victim compensation fund for the treatment and now has to pay it back as part of her rehabilitation. As part of the plea deal, she agreed to repay law enforcement more than $150,000 for the costs of searching for her and her non-existent captors and to repay the $128,000 she has received in disability payments since her return.
