DANVILLE, Va. – A man who led authorities on a multi-state search after he kidnapped his young daughter in Danville has been sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison. Carl Ray Kennedy, 53, was sentenced in U.S. Western District Court Tuesday after pleading guilty to violating a protective order across state lines. In June 2018, Kennedy snatched his one-year-old daughter, Emma Grace Kennedy, at knife-point from her mother at the Kwik Mart on Riverside Drive.

Virginia State Police issued an Amber Alert and the infant was found safe in Randleman, North Carolina two days after the abduction. Her father was taken into custody and returned to Danville to stand trial.

According to court records, a protective order put in place in May 2018 banned him from contacting his daughter and her mother.

In 2019, Kennedy was sentenced in Danville Circuit Court to six years after pleading guilty to the kidnapping of a child by parent, assault and battery of family member, abduction by force, abuse of a child, and grand larceny.