An Arizona man who was on the FBI's Most Wanted list has been sentenced to nine years in prison for kidnapping and beating his mother-in-law in Oxnard in 2004.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Clark on Wednesday described the crime as a "very serious case" before sentencing 30-year-old Gary Edward Lasher of Seligman, Ariz.

Lasher also is facing child molestation, drug and other felony charges in Arizona.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Kim Gibbons said Lasher got the toughest sentence allowed here by law.

According to police, Lasher was trying to get information about his estranged wife when he beat and kidnapped her mother, who is in her 60s.

She was tied up and stuffed into the trunk of a car. The victim escaped when her kidnapper stopped to beat her again and didn't shut the trunk completely, and she leaped from the car, according to police.

Lasher eluded capture for more than a year before he was arrested in Mexico in October 2005. The FBI tipped off Mexican police that he was in the resort city of Playa del Carmen.

Gibbons said he believes Arizona authorities are in the process of getting Lasher extradited to Arizona to face the charges there.

In Arizona, authorities say Lasher raped his wife and occasionally beat her unconscious. Police say they have video of him molesting a 9-year-old girl and attacking his wife.

Images of child pornography were allegedly recovered from his computer.

The FBI also might file charges against Lasher for interstate flight to avoid prosecution, Gibbons said.

"He should be in prison for a long time. He is a dangerous man," Gibbons said.

According to Oxnard police, Lasher kidnapped his mother-in-law Feb. 21, 2004, from a house in the 1400 block of Gazenia Court.

Lasher pleaded guilty in June in Ventura County Superior Court to charges of kidnapping, assault by means likely to cause great bodily harm and first-degree residential burglary, records show.

On Wednesday, Lasher's attorney, Donna Forry of the Public Defender's Office, told the judge that an eight-year sentence was appropriate punishment under the circumstances. Forry couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Lasher was on the FBI's Most Wanted list and profiled on the television show "America's Most Wanted." In Mexico, he worked as a kite-surfing instructor, authorities said.

They said he had recently made a marriage proposal in Mexico to a European woman, and they planned to move to Europe.