WHITE PLAINS – Two Guatemala residents were convicted following a three-week trial in White Plains federal court on Thursday of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother from their mother in Woodridge.
Mordechay Malka, 27, and Matityau Malka, 30, both U.S. citizens, are members of the extremist Jewish sect called Lev Tahor.
After they participated in the December 2018 kidnapping, they smuggled the children across the U.S. border to Mexico, where they reunited the girl with her adult “husband,” who she religiously “married” when she was 13.
After the children were recovered and returned to their mother, the two defendants and their co-conspirators tried to kidnap them again in March 2019.
Two co-conspirators, Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner, were previously convicted of kidnapping and sexual exploitation charges in connection with the case after an October 2021 trial and each has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The two Malkas were convicted of conspiring to commit international parental kidnapping, to unlawfully use a means of identification, and to enter by false pretenses the secure area of an airport, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Mordechay Malka was also convicted of two counts of international parental kidnapping, which carries up to three years in prison on each count.
Matityau Malka was also convicted of attempted international kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison on each count.
