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December 7, 2009

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Iowa men sentenced in kidnapping of Wyoming man

Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999 | 12:46 p.m.

Jerry Lee Morgan, 41, was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 27 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Edward Reed.

Morgan, of Davenport, was convicted by a jury earlier this year of the December, 1998 carjacking and beating of 21-year-old Franklin Klein.

An accomplice, Billy Johnson, 45, of Ames, was sentenced to more than 15 years. Johnson earlier pleaded guilty in the case.

The two men approached Klein on Dec. 19 as he was leaving a truck stop near Cheyenne, Wyo. They asked him for a ride to their disabled car and assistance jump-starting it.

While Klein was driving them to the car, one of the men put a knife to Klein's throat, threatened to kill him and told him to drive west on Interstate 80.

In Utah, Klein said he was bound with duct tape and put in the truck. He was also beaten and stabbed along the way.

Thinking Klein was dead, his abductors pushed him down a ravine and covered him with snow near a rest stop at Beowawe.

Klein waited until Morgan and Johnson left, then managed to crawl out of the ravine and flag down a snowplow driver.

The men were arrested shortly afterward.

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