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U.S. NEWS Saturday 25 May 2019

Wisconsin man who kidnapped Jayme Closs gets life in prison

By AMY FORLITI and TODD kidnapping count. take."
RICHMOND "There's no doubt in my District Attorney Brian
Associated Press mind you're one of the Wright told the judge that
BARRON, Wis. (AP) — A Wis- most dangerous men to Patterson traveled to the
consin man was sentenced ever walk on this planet," Closs home on two sepa-
Friday to life in prison for Babler said. rate occasions to kidnap
kidnapping 13-year-old Patterson sat shaking his her but turned back be-
Jayme Closs and killing her head during most of the cause of activity at her
parents after the girl told hearing. Offered a chance house.
the judge she that wanted to speak, he said he would He finally drove to the
him "locked up forever" for do anything to take back house during the early
trying to steal her. what he did. morning hours of Oct. 15
Jake Patterson, 21, plead- "I would die," he said. "I dressed in black and carry-
ed guilty in March to two would do absolutely any- ing his father's shotgun. He
counts of intentional homi- thing ... to bring them back. shot James Closs through
cide and one count of kid- I don't care about me. I'm a window in the front
napping. He admitted he just so sorry. That's all." door, blasted the lock and In this March 27, 2019, file photo, Jake Patterson appears for a
broke into Jayme's home The judge read statements moved inside. hearing at the Barron County Justice Center, in Barron, Wis.
in October, gunned down that Patterson wrote in jail in He found the bathroom Associated Press
her parents, James and which he said he had suc- door locked. He broke the
Denise Closs, made off with cumbed to fantasies about door down and discovered er, which under Wisconsin time in captivity have not
her and held her under a keeping a young girl and Jayme and her mother law may be required both been released, and no
bed in his remote cabin for torturing and controlling clinging to each other in for an actual sex offense charges were brought by
88 days before she made a her. He started looking for the bathtub. He tied Jayme or an attempted sexual of- prosecutors in the county
daring escape. an opportunity to kidnap up with tape, then shot De- fense. Details of Jayme's where she was held.q
Jayme didn't appear at someone, even deciding nise Closs in the head as
Patterson's sentencing he might want to take mul- she sat next to her daugh-
hearing Friday, but a fam- tiple girls and kill multiple ter. Feds defer prosecution of
ily attorney read her first families, according to the He dragged Jayme
public statements about statements. Jayme was the through her father's blood Kansas online gamer in
her ordeal to Judge James first girl he saw after these and out to his car. He threw
Babler. thoughts entered his mind, her in the trunk and drove hoax case
"He thought that he could he said. her to his cabin in Gordon
own me but he was wrong. Patterson's attorneys, Rich- in Douglas County, about By ROXANA HEGEMAN ly result in charges being
I was smarter," the state- ard Jones and Charles 60 miles (97 kilometers) WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A dropped if a defendant
ment said. "I was brave and Glynn, told the judge that northeast of Barron. Kansas online gamer whose fulfills all its conditions.
he was not. ... He thought Patterson was isolated and He kept her trapped under dispute over a $1.50 bet The judge deferred court
he could make me like him, that he overreacted to a bed using totes filled with sparked a hoax call that proceedings and discov-
but he was wrong. ... For 88 loneliness. They asked for weights and hit her with a resulted in police shooting ery during a period ending
days he tried to steal me leniency for Patterson, not- curtain rod, Wright said. a man who lived at his old on Dec. 31, 2020 and or-
and he didn't care who he ing that he had pleaded "He kept her in constant address has struck a deal dered Gaskill to pay $1,000
hurt or who he killed to do guilty to spare Jayme and fear, threatening her, tell- with prosecutors that could in restitution, costs and
that. He should be locked her family from a trial. ing her things would get allow the charges against penalties as required under
up forever." According to a criminal worse," Wright said. him to be dropped. the agreement.
The judge called Patterson complaint, Patterson was Jayme finally escaped on U.S. District Judge Eric Mel- The death of Andrew Finch,
the "embodiment of evil" driving to work in October Jan. 10 while Patterson was gren approved on Friday 28, in Wichita drew national
before sentencing him to when he spotted Jayme away. She flagged down the joint motion for de- attention to the practice of
consecutive life sentences getting on a school bus a neighbor, who found ferred prosecution that "swatting," a form of retali-
without the possibility of near her rural home outside someone to call police. had been filed earlier in the ation in which someone re-
release on the homicide Barron, about 90 miles (145 Patterson was arrested min- day by prosecutors and ports a false emergency to
charges. He also ordered kilometers) northeast of utes later as he returned to the attorney for 20-year-old get authorities, particularly
Patterson to serve 25 years Minneapolis. the cabin. Shane Gaskill of Wichita. a SWAT team, to descend
in prison and 15 years of ex- He decided then that "she Patterson was also ordered Such agreements typical-
tended supervision on the was the girl he was going to to register as a sex offend- on an address.q