How Jake Patterson Insanity Plea Would Differ From Slenderman

BARRON COUNTY, WI -- The attorneys for Jake Patterson, the 21-year-old Wisconsin man accused of abducting missing endangered teen Jayme Closs and shooting her parents in Oct. 2018, have not revealed how Patterson will plea when he is arraigned in court on March 27.

Yet experts say Patterson's crime is so unusual, and so disturbing that an insanity defense will be almost impossible to prove.

“This crime is so despicable (that) it’s almost impossible for an insanity defense to work here,” said Jack Levin, a longtime criminologist and a professor emeritus at Northeastern University in Boston in an Appleton Post-Crescent report.

Insanity Plea In Slenderman Case

Wisconsin residents have seen an insanity defense strategy play out in the courtroom before in the Slenderman case.

In that case, authorities say 12-year-olds Morgan E. Geyser and Anissa E. Weier both plotted for months to kill Payton Leutner, luring her to a weekend birthday-party sleepover and then a wooded park where one they stabbed her repeatedly, according to authorities.

Defense attorneys maintained from the beginning that the girls were particularly fascinated with the story of Slenderman, a killer of children. According to the criminal complaint, the girls planned to kill their friend so they could be "proxies of Slenderman."

During the trial, a psychologist testified that Weier and Geyser developed a condition called shared delusional disorder, a conditional in which two people share the same delusional system and support each other in their belief.

In the Slenderman case, the defense argued that Weier and Geyser developed a strong emotional bond that led to their shared belief that the paranormal character Slenderman existed in the real world.

Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ordered Geyser to serve 40 years in a mental institution in Feb. 2018. She and Anissa Weier were found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Geyser appealed her sentence in January, saying she should have not been tried as an adult in the case.

Experts Say Patterson Was In Control

Unlike the Slenderman case, experts are already saying that Jake Patterson was in control of his actions.

In the Post-Crescent article, Levin said Patterson’s confession "showed that he went to great lengths to plan and carry out the crimes," and that eluding police and holding a hostage "are not character traits of criminals who are out of touch with reality.”

According to a criminal complaint filed in Barron County, Patterson told authorities that one day on his way to work, he stopped behind a school bus on Highway 8.

As he sat in his vehicle behind the bus, Patterson admitted he watched Jayme get on the school bus. He told investigators that he had no idea who she was, nor did he know where she lived, but knew upon seeing her that "this was the girl he was going to take."

One expert says Patterson chose his victim, plotted his crimes, carried them out with cold efficiency and covered his tracks.

“When guys do this sort of thing, anybody who gets between them and their target is in peril,” Gregg McCrary, a former special agent with the FBI said in a second Post-Crescent report. “That’s his desire, and he is willing to kill. This is someone with no guilt, no remorse, no empathy. He killed these people with the empathy of lighting a cigarette.”

How It Happened

Here are the details of the night of Oct. 15 in which Closs' parents were shot and killed, and Jayme abducted and also her dramatic escape from captivity.

According to the criminal complaint, during the early morning hours of Oct. 15, Jayme told investigators she was asleep in her bedroom when her dog began to bark. She went to investigate and noticed there was someone in her driveway. She went to her parent's room and woke up her mother, Denise, and her father, James.

According to the complaint, James went to the door, only to find Patterson with a shotgun outside. As Jayme and Denise went to hide in the bathroom, Jayme told investigators she heard a gunshot. She knew her father had been killed, she told investigators.

Jayme told investigators that Patterson entered the house, broke down the bathroom door and told her mother to hang up a cellphone that she was trying to use to dial 911. Jayme told investigators that Patterson ordered Denise to put tape over Jayme's mouth. After she did, Patterson shot and killed Denise, according to the criminal complaint.

According to the criminal complaint, Patterson taped Jayme's hands and ankles together and dragged her out to his car and put her in the trunk, where she stayed for about two hours as Patterson drove to his house in the small town of Gordon.

Jayme told investigators that Patterson held her prisoner in her house, forcing her to stay under a bed in his bedroom. When Patterson left the house, or when company would come over, Jayme said Patterson forced her to hide under his bed "or something bad would happen." According to the criminal complaint, Patterson would force Jayme to hide under the bed for stretches of 12 hours at a time without food, water or bathroom breaks.

According to the criminal complaint, there was one instance in which Patterson got upset with her and hit her "really hard" on her back with a rod.

Jayme told investigators about the day of her escape. According to the criminal complaint, on Jan. 10, Patterson left the house and told her he was going to be gone for between five and six hours. Jayme said she was forced to once again hide under the bed. Jayme was able to push some heavy bins and weights away from the bed frame so she could escape.

She put on a pair of Patterson's shoes, walked out of the house and happened upon a dog walker whom she asked for help. She told the dog walker that Patterson kidnapped her. They went to the nearest house where the resident called 911.

When Patterson got home, he saw that Jayme was not under the bed. He looked briefly around the house and saw fresh footprints in the snow, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint stated that Patterson got into his car, and began driving around in an attempt to look for her. After a few minutes, he returned to his house, and was met by the police. At that time, Patterson admitted, he knew that he had been caught.