Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl kidnapped last year by an evil convict who killed her parents in front her eyes, had powerful words for the convicted man during his sentencing hearing on Friday.
“Last October, Jake Patterson took a lot of things that I love away from me. It makes me the most sad that he took away my mom and my dad. I love my mom and dad very much, and they love me very much. They did all they could to make me happy and protect me,” Closs said through a statement read in court on her behalf, according to Washington Post.
Patterson, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping earlier this year. The convictions came after he broke into Jayme’s Barron County home in October 2018, shot her parents to death, then bound the girl with duct tape and forced her into his car.
For 88 days, Jayme involuntarily lived inside Patterson’s rural home in Gordon County. He hid her under his bed when company came over, forced her to obey his rules and physically abused her. In January 2019, Jayme managed to escape the home while Patterson was away. She ran to the nearest person she could find and asked for help. Police found Patterson the same day and arrested him.
Jayme, who now lives with her aunt in Barron County, continued the statement by describing how she has must have an alarm in her house to sleep at night, and how she doesn’t go out much anymore because she becomes fearful and anxious in public.
The young teen blamed Patterson for taking her sense of security away from her, but she made sure the killer knew how she outsmarted him and how he could never take away her courage.
“I was smarter. I watched his routine and I took back my freedom. I will always have my freedom and he will not. Jake Patterson can never take away my courage. He thought he could control me, but he couldn’t.”
“I was brave and he was not. He can never take away my spirit. He can’t ever change me or take away who I am,” the statement continued. “He can’t stop me from being happy and moving forward with my life. I will go on to do great things in my life and he will not.”
When it came time Patterson to give his own statement, he choked up on his words while explaining to the judge that he “would do absolutely anything” to bring Jayme’s parents back to her.
“I’ll just say that, I would do, like, absolutely anything to take back what I did, you know. I would die. I would do absolutely anything to… to bring them back… I don’t care about me I’m just so sorry, that’s all.”
Regardless, Patterson will die in prison. Barron County Judge James C. Babler sentenced him to life in prison for each count of intentional homicide, without the possibility of parole. He received an additional 40 years in prison for kidnapping.
“There is no doubt in my mind that you are one of the most dangerous men to walk on this planet,” Babler said while sentencing the killer. “The actions and ideas you had are not normal. They are shockingly not normal.”
[Feature Photo: Jayme Closs, Jake Patterson/Police Handout]
