Man gets 70 years for tossing girl in Springfield lake

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A man who plead guilty to tossing a 5-year-old girl into a cold lake to terrorize a woman was sentenced Friday to 70 years in prison.

Johnnie Jerome Kerns, 29, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Dan Conklin to consecutive terms for five felonies, including kidnapping, child abuse and assault.

Kerns was arrested last September shortly after two fishermen pulled the girl from the Springfield-area lake before dawn. They had heard what sounded like a child being thrown from a bridge and then a vehicle speeding off.

Kerns plead guilty in February to kidnapping the girl from her mother's home and tying a car tire to her before throwing her in the water.

Greene County assistant prosecutor Dan Patterson said the judge denied probation for Kerns. His lawyers failed in their bid to have the sentences imposed concurrently, which would have limited prison time to 18 years.