DENVER (KDVR) — A Colorado man who was convicted for kidnapping a housekeeper from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ranch was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.
The incident started on Feb. 2, 2022, when 51-year-old Joseph Beecher, who worked as a hotel handyman in Craig was told by his employer that “his services were no longer needed,” according to a Friday press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Wyoming.
He broke into his employer’s home and stole two firearms then drove to Bloomberg’s ranch located in northwest Colorado. According to court documents obtained by FOX31, Beecher rammed his pickup truck through the gate of the ranch.
According to the release, he intended to kill Bloomberg but was only able to find a woman on the property. She was identified as the ranch’s supervising housekeeper.
“Beecher took the woman hostage at gunpoint and forced her to drive him to various locations to locate and kill another media mogul in Colorado,” the release states.
Beecher was unable to find his second target, according to the release, so he forced the woman to drive him to the Stage Coach Motel in Cheyenne.
Investigators tracked the woman’s iPad to the motel, where employees told police which room the suspect was in, according to court documents.
Early the next morning, the Cheyenne Police Department’s SWAT officers rescued her and arrested Beecher.
The woman was not physically harmed.
Beecher was found guilty in a trial that lasted three days and ended on Aug. 28 this year in Cheyenne. He was convicted of kidnapping, using or carrying a firearm during a crime of violence and transportation of stolen firearms.
Beecher was sentenced to 264 months, or 22 years, in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
