Wisconsin man gets life in prison in Jayme Closs case

BARRON, WIS.» A man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for kidnapping 13year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents in a case that mystified authorities for months until the girl made a daring escape from the remote cabin where she was held for 88 days.

Jake Patterson, 21, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He admitted to abducting Jayme in October after killing her parents, James and Denise, at the family’s home near Barron, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. Jayme escaped in January from Patterson’s cabin near the small and isolated town of Gordon, 60 miles from her home.

In a statement read in court, Jayme said Patterson “thought that he could own me, but he’s wrong. I was smarter.” She said she wanted to see Patterson “locked up forever.”

She did not appear in court, and her guardian read the statement.

Patterson was sentenced to life in prison without possibility for release on each homicide count and 25 years in prison on the kidnapping count. The sentences will be served consecutively. Those were the maximum sentences the judge could impose. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Patterson told authorities he decided Jayme “was the girl he was going to take” after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home, according to a criminal complaint.

He told investigators he plotted carefully, including wearing all-black clothing, putting stolen license plates on his car and taking care to leave no fingerprints on his shotgun.

Jayme told police that the night of her abduction, the family dog’s barking awoke her, and she went to wake up her parents as a car came up the driveway. While her father went to the front door, Jayme and her mother hid in the bathroom, clutching each other in the bathtub, the shower curtain pulled shut.

Patterson shot Jayme’s father as he entered the house, then found Jayme and her mother. He told detectives he wrapped tape around Jayme’s mouth and head, taped her hands behind her back and taped her ankles together, then shot her mother in the head. He told police he dragged Jayme outside and threw her in the trunk of his car, the complaint said.