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Jake Patterson was sentenced in court at the Barron County Justice Center Friday afternoon.

A Judge sentenced Jake Patterson to two life sentences for the murders of James and Denise Closs, without the eligibility of parole and the maximum penalty of 40 years for the kidnapping of Jayme.

Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pled guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He admitted to abducting Jayme after killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, in October.

Jayme was held captive in a remote cabin for 88 days before she escaped.

The Closs family share post-sentencing comments:

Court documents indicate that Patterson said he saw Closs getting on a school bus while working at the Saputo Cheese Factory south of Almena. 

“The defendant stated when he saw [Closs], he knew that was the girl he was going to take,” the complaint said. 

Patterson said he had never met Jayme through any social media sites and only learned her name and her parents names after the abduction and they got back to his house, according to the complaint.

Patterson told police he drove to the Closs’ home twice with the intent to kidnap Jayme, but cars in the driveway and lights on in the house scared him off, according to the complaint.

On the third attempt, he stole the license plates off a vehicle parked in the yard so his license plates wouldn’t be on his car, officials said. He also disconnected his dome light and trunk light so no one could see him or pull the trunk release cord from inside.

Patterson took his father’s 12-gauge shotgun because he researched it and determined it was one of the most heavily manufactured or owned shotguns and assumed it would be more difficult to trace, according to the complaint. 

Patterson also told officials he wiped down the shotgun shells while wearing gloves and cleaned and wiped down the shotgun while wearing gloves so there were not fingerprints or DNA on either of them, according to the complaint. He said he did that to make sure there would be no fingerprints or DNA on the shotgun.

Patterson also said he shaved his face and head so he would not leave any DNA or hair at the house, officials said.

Investigators say the 21-year-old man broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron, Wisconsin on Oct. 15 by blowing the front door open with a shotgun. Jayme’s parents were shot to death and the teenager vanished the same day.

Jayme told officials she was asleep the night of the attack, and when her dog started barking early in the morning she got up to see why, according to the release. Jayme said she noticed someone driving up their driveway and she went to wake her parents up.

Jayme said Patterson was dressed in black from head to toe, including a face mask, hat and gloves, according to the complaint. Patterson then taped Jayme’s hands and ankles together and he dragged her out to his car.

Patterson had Jayme take off all of her clothes when they got to the house and made a comment about not having any evidence, according to the complaint.

Patterson made Closs stay under his bed to hide the fact that she was there, according to the complaint. She said he stacked totes and laundry bins around the bed with weights stacked against them so she could not move them. He would also turn music on so she couldn’t hear anything else that was happening. Patterson made her stay under his bed for up to 12 hours at a time — including when his father would visit — with no food, water or bathroom breaks, according to the complaint.

Closs was able to move the boxes to escape the home last week. 

Investigators say when Patterson was found driving the day Closs escaped, he told them he knew what the stop was about. 

“I did it,” Patterson allegedly said. 

Patterson said he determined he was going to take Closs that night and was going to kill anyone in the house because he couldn’t leave any eye witnesses behind, according to the release. Patterson said if he had been stopped by police that night, he most likely would have shot at them.

Patterson estimated he had been at the Closs home for only about four minutes total.

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