Man sentenced to 47 years to life in prison for kidnapping 9-year-old girl from upstate New York park

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (AP) — A man was sentenced Wednesday to 47 years to life in prison for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from an upstate New York state park l ‘last year.

Craig N. Ross Jr. pleaded guilty in February to taking the girl in September to a campground in Moreau Lake State Park, a rural area about 40 miles north of Albany. The disappearance sparked a 48-hour search that ended when she was found alive in a camper van where Ross was staying.

“Because of you, I can’t sleep at night,” the girl, who was not present, said in a statement read in court by Assistant Saratoga County Prosecutor Jennifer L. Buckley. “I was imprisoned for two and a half days, and now you will be imprisoned for 47 years.”

Judge James A. Murphy III also issued an order of protection for the girl so that Ross could not contact her in person or by mail.

Ross, 47, was shackled when he entered the courtroom and appeared to show little emotion throughout the sentencing. He refused to speak.

The little girl was riding on a bike path with friends at the campsite near her home on the evening of September 30 when she went for a last lap alone and did not return.

More than 100 people searched for it. The case came to a head when law enforcement guarding the girl’s home saw someone leave a ransom note in her mailbox.

Police eventually matched the fingerprints on the note to those of Ross, who was in the database because of a 1999 drunken driving case. State police and a SWAT team from FBI then descended on the camper, where the child was found in a cabinet.

Saratoga County Prosecutor Karen Heggen told reporters she was pleased with the sentence following the hearing.

“The family heard this defendant say he was guilty of this crime. He admitted to doing it, and those who should have been called to testify did not have to relive that trauma,” she said.

Ross, who was scheduled to stand trial this month, was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years to life in prison for the kidnapping charge and 22 years to life in prison for the predatory sexual assault of a child charge, with the sentences due be served consecutively.

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Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.