'Rockefeller' suspect eyes insanity defense
2009-02-14

Category Kidnap Time Year Nations U.S. City Baltimore Boston Los Angeles States Maryland Massachusetts California Category Regions County Baltimore County Suffolk County Los Angeles County Metropolitan Baltimore Metro Greater Boston Los Angeles Metro Category 2007 Source (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) - The man known as "Clark Rockefeller" at the center of a dramatic 2008 manhunt plans to use an insanity defense in his upcoming kidnap trial, court documents showed Friday.

Lawyers representing German-national Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who was went under several different aliases, said in documents filed at a Boston, Massachusetts court that he plans to plead lack of criminal responsibility "because of a mental disease or defect at the time of the alleged crime."

Gerhartsreiter allegedly abducted his seven-year-old daughter Reigh Storrow Boss from his ex-wife in late July, and was arrested by FBI agents a week later.

The week-long hunt for the flamboyant fugitive and his blue-eyed daughter gripped the US public's imagination, notably because the man used the famous Rockefeller name, and the child's mother Sandra Boss made an emotional appeal on US television and YouTube for the return of her "princess."

Gerhartsreiter's defense team, which asked the Suffolk Superior Court to postpone the trial date until May 11, said they plan to offer testimony from expert witnesses drawing on their client's statements that demonstrate mental deficiency.

The man was arrested in early August after being cornered near a yacht marina in Baltimore, Maryland, where he kept a small catamaran.

After his arrest, police in Los Angeles said Gerhartsreiter was wanted for questioning in connection with the 1985 disappearance of a California couple.

He has reportedly used a number of aliases, including J.P. Clark Rockefeller, Clark Mill Rockefeller, as well as Michael Brown.

The Rockefeller dynasty, which originally made its fortune in oil, denied links to the suspect before he was identified.