Man pleads guilty to kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing parents

BARRON, Wis. – A Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the kidnapping of 13-year-old Jayme Closs and the murder of his parents, which would spare the girl detained in an isolated shack for three months from the possible trauma of To have to testify at his trial.

Jake Patterson, 21, sniffed and his voice was heard as he pleaded guilty to two counts of willful homicide and a kidnapping leader. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors have abandoned the head of an armed burglary. Patterson faces life imprisonment when he is sentenced on May 24; Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Patterson had stated that he would plead guilty in a letter sent this month to a Minneapolis television station, stating that he did not want the Closs family "worried about a lawsuit".

Patterson admitted kidnapping Jayme after killing his parents, James and Denise Closs, on Oct. 15 at the family home near Barron, about 145 kilometers northeast of Minneapolis. Jayme escaped in January after 88 days in Patterson's cabin, near the small isolated town of Gordon, about 97 km from her home.

The plea, coupled with an earlier decision by prosecutors not to lay charges in the county where Jayme was held, increases the chances that the details of his stay in captivity will remain confidential.

Patterson responded stoically "yes" and "yes" to repeated questions from Judge James Gabler of Barron County, namely, he understood what he was doing. Later, when he answered "guilty" to each of the chiefs, he could be heard sniffing. He paused a few seconds after the judge asked him about the kidnapping before stuttering, "guilty".

Defense lawyer Richard Jones told Gabler that Patterson "wanted to argue the day we met him" and explained to him the strategies that had been presented to him, including trying to suppress his statements to the investigators.

"He rejected all that and decided that it was what he wanted to do," Jones said.

The members of the Closs family and Patterson's father and sister all left the courthouse without comment.

According to a criminal complaint, Patterson reportedly told the authorities that he had decided that Jayme "was the girl he was going to take" after seeing him get on a school bus near her home. He told the investigators that he had plotted carefully, including wearing all-black clothing, placing stolen plates on his car and taking care not to leave any fingerprints on his rifle. hunt.

Jayme told police that on the night of the kidnapping, the family 's dog barking had awakened her, and she had gone to wake her parents when a car came into the house. driveway. As her father was walking to the front door, Jayme and her mother hid in the bathroom, standing in the bathtub with the shower curtain closed.

Patterson shot Jayme's father as he entered the house, then found Jayme and his mother. He told the detectives that he had wrapped duct tape around Jayme's mouth and head, taped her back, then ankles, and then shot her mother in the head. He told the police that he had dragged Jayme outside, thrown her into the trunk of her car and took her to her cabin, the complaint said.

During Jayme's captivity, Patterson forced her to hide under a bed when he had friends and sent her with bags and weights, warning that if she moved, "bad things could happen to her". He also turned on the radio so that visitors can not hear it, according to the complaint.

The authorities searched for Jayme for months and collected more than 3,500 tips. On January 10, Jayme escaped from the cabin while Patterson was away. She then reported a woman walking a dog and asked for help. Patterson was arrested a few minutes later.

Patterson grew up in the cabin where he was holding Jayme. He wrote in his high school yearbook of his intention to join the Marines after graduation, but he was fired barely a month after his accession. He worked only one day in a turkey factory in 2016 before resigning. he told the investigators that he had spotted Jayme while he was going to work in a cheese dairy where he was already planning to quit after two days.

The day Jayme escaped, Patterson applied online for a job at a liquor store with a resume that distorted her experience.

Laura Tancre, of Star Prairie, said she was relieved by Patterson's call and "happy for the little girl". Tancre, 57, worked in the same factory as Jayme's parents and called them "very nice people".

"I think he should have life after killing both parents," she said. "I would hate him so he can and do it again."

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Amy Forliti, Associated Press writer, contributed from Minneapolis.

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Check out the complete coverage by AP of kidnapping Jayme Closs and the death of her parents.