ELK RIVER, Minn. — A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a resident of a St. Cloud senior living facility has been sentenced to nearly six months in jail and faces deportation.

Jesus Manzanilla Alvarado of Big Lake was sentenced earlier this month in Sherburne County. The 23-year-old Alvarado pleaded guilty May 1 to criminal sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, a gross misdemeanor.

Manzanilla Alvarado worked at St. Benedict’s Senior Community. The Mexico native was in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from being deported.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Shawn Neudauer told the St. Cloud Times that Manzanilla Alvarado’s DACA status has been revoked and he will be deported after he completes his sentence.

FARIBAULT, Minn. — The man who murdered two Mankato State University students in 1974 will spend at least five more years in prison, the Mankato Free Press reported.

After a hearing Tuesday, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections decided not to grant parole to 80-year-old Edward Richard Clark for the slayings of Michael Jimenez, 24, and Barbara Lackore Jimenez, 22.

Clark is serving two life sentences, but with the possibility of parole. He was up for parole for a third time Tuesday and again was denied. He will be eligible for release again in five years, according to a department spokeswoman.

Two juries found Clark guilty, but he maintains his innocence in the deaths of the newlyweds 45 years ago.

Clark told authorities he gave a ride to the couple, who were hitchhiking back to MSU. He claims he also picked up another hitchhiker and allowed that person to drive while he slept. He claims he woke up alone in his parked car and does not know what happened to the Jimenezes.

Evidence linking Clark to the murders was found in a storage locker he had rented, including the rifle that a ballistics test determined had fired the bullet that killed Michael Jimenez.

Law enforcement agents found a cache of guns and more than half a million dollars in cash when they searched two storage lockers belonging to a St. Paul man this past month, authorities say.

The search was conducted after Phelixis Fitzgerald Mar Robinson was caught attempting to sell more than 1,000 grams of heroin, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota.

The 44-year-old, who goes by the name “Storm,” was indicted this past week on federal charges following the bust, including one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin, one count of distributing heroin and a third count of being a felon in possession of firearms.

He made his first appearance on the charges Wednesday.

Among the firearms were five semi-automatic pistols and one revolver, authorities say. Nearly $600,000 in cash was also found.

BARRON, Wis. – Seven months ago, the roughly 3,400 residents of Barron, Wis., awoke to shocking news.

A local couple, James and Denise Closs, had been fatally shot inside their residence on the outskirts of town. Their 13-year-old daughter, Jayme, was missing.

Authorities were tipped off by a mysterious 911 call placed from Denise’s phone in the middle of the night. But there was little evidence left at the scene to help investigators determine who had committed the heinous crimes, and why.

The tragedy gripped the town for nearly three months, grabbing national headlines as local, state and federal authorities worked the case and Jayme’s family pleaded for her safe return.

Ultimately, though, it was Jayme who rescued herself by escaping from the rural Douglas County home where she had been held captive for 88 days — later earning the title of “hero” from the Barron County sheriff and Wisconsin legislature.

On Friday, the final chapter of the story will be written.

Jake Thomas Patterson, the 21-year-old Gordon man who confessed to abducting Jayme and killing her parents, will appear in Barron County Circuit Court for sentencing. He faces a mandatory life term.

HARROWING DETAILS

In entering his guilty pleas, Patterson was not asked to recount his actions or motivations. But both he and Jayme provided details to law enforcement in the days after she escaped and he was arrested.

Patterson told investigators that he was driving to a job he held for two days when he saw Jayme getting on a school bus along U.S. Highway 8. He did not know her or her family, but he immediately “knew that was the girl he was going to take,” according to a criminal complaint.

Investigators said he spent several weeks planning every detail of a crime that would leave no evidence behind, shaving his head, purchasing a mask, swapping license plates and even removing the dome light from his vehicle.

Most significantly, according to authorities, Patterson vowed to leave behind no witnesses when he blasted open the door of the Closs home in the dark of night on Oct. 15.

The complaint states that Patterson used his father’s shotgun to kill James Closs, 56, in the entryway of the Closs home. He proceeded into the house, finding Jayme and her mother hiding in the bathroom.

Denise, 46, scrambled to call 911 but Patterson ordered her to hang up. He duct-taped Jayme’s mouth, wrists and ankles together and then shot Denise in her presence.

Patterson then loaded Jayme in the trunk of his car and left, narrowly avoiding three responding squad cars, and continued 75 miles north to his home.

For the next three months, Jayme told investigators, she was regularly required to hide under Patterson’s bed, barricaded by storage bins containing barbell weights, wherever he had visitors over or needed to leave the residence.

She escaped when left alone Jan. 10, approaching retired child protection social worker Jeanne Nutter, who was walking her dog in the area. Nutter brought Jayme to a neighboring residence and summoned help.

Patterson was stopped and arrested nearby. He told investigators he was out searching for Jayme after returning home to find her missing.

CLOSING THE CASE

The sentencing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. before Barron County Circuit Judge James Babler. Members of Jayme’s family are expected to deliver victim-impact statements, and Patterson himself may address the court.

The only real issue at stake, however, is whether Patterson will ever see an opportunity for parole. Wisconsin law mandates a life sentence for each of the homicide convictions, but the judge has discretion in determining whether the defendant will have any right to seek future release from prison.

At a minimum, Patterson would eligible for parole after serving 20 years in prison. On the maximum end, the judge may impose two consecutive life terms, followed by an additional 40 years in prison.

In a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed an additional count of armed burglary and said they would not bring charges related to any crimes that he may have committed in Douglas County.

Patterson did not cooperate with a presentence investigation report, which was submitted to the court last week by Wisconsin Department of Corrections probation and parole agent Jennifer Sem.

Still, it’s unusual for a case of its significance to be fully resolved in just over four months. In pleading guilty at the first available opportunity, Patterson declined to have a trial before a judge or jury, bring a motion to suppress his confession, seek a change of venue or exercise any other pretrial right.

“He has wanted to enter a plea from the day we met,” defense attorney Richard Jones said in March.

A gunman unsuccessfully tried to steal a Maserati in Oakdale on May 16. About 45 minutes later a man approached a woman in Woodbury and demanded at gunpoint that she give her car to him, according to police.

St. Paul police arrested two juveniles two days afterward and recovered the car stolen in Woodbury.

In Oakdale, the owner of a 2016 Maserati reported that at 7:30 p.m. May 16, he was getting into his car in the parking lot of the Hy-Vee on 10th Street. The owner said a man got out of a green Ford Taurus, pointed a gun at his stomach, and ordered him to turn over the keys to the car.

The owner fled on foot without giving up the car. The suspect drove away in the Ford, hitting the back of a parked car on the way out. Three accomplices were with him in the car.

The suspect was a man in his 20s, wearing a stocking cap, sweatshirt and sweatpants, all black.

Then, at 8:15 p.m., another carjacking was reported at the Lunds and Byerlys supermarket in Woodbury.

According to Woodbury Police Commander John Altman, a woman told police that she parked her car and started to get out. A man pulled the door open, pointed a gun at her and demanded that she give him the car. She did, and the car thief drove away. The woman suspected that he had accomplices in another vehicle, but was not able to give descriptions.

On May 18, St. Paul police recovered the stolen car after a car chase that ended in a crash. They arrested the juveniles and confiscated a silver BB gun.

Police in Woodbury, Oakdale and St. Paul are continuing to work on the investigation.

MANTORVILLE, Minn. — A grand jury in southeastern Minnesota indicted a 57-year-old woman who authorities allege fatally shot her husband before fleeing to Florida and killing a woman there.

The Dodge County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Lois Riess on first- and second-degree murder charges.

Riess is accused of shooting her husband, 54-year-old David Riess, at the couple’s home in Blooming Prairie in March 2018. Authorities say Lois Riess went to Fort Myers, Fla., met 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson while there and killed her in April 2018 in order to assume her identity. The two women were close in age and height, with both having almost white hair.

Riess led authorities on a cross-country manhunt before she was captured in Texas on April 19, 2018, at a South Padre Island waterfront restaurant by two federal deputy marshals. An employee recognized her from surveillance video broadcast on television. Riess was extradited to Florida, where she faces a first-degree murder charge.

Prosecutors allege Lois Riess forged checks to steal $11,000 from her husband’s account and then traveled south to Florida where she met Hutchinson, who was in Fort Myers visiting a friend. In March, Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose said testing by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension indicated that shell casings found at David Riess’ homicide matched a handgun recovered from Lois Riess’ hotel room after her arrest in Texas.

According to records released by the state attorney’s office for Lee County, Fla., both Hutchinson and David Riess were killed by small-caliber weapons in bathrooms, both had towels draped over their bodies and a rolled-up towel was wedged between the floor and bathroom door in both cases.

David Riess was found dead after a business partner in their Prairie Wax Worm Farm called authorities saying no one had seen him for more than two weeks.

Florida prosecutors say they plan to seek the death penalty against Riess, who remains jailed there. Minnesota does not have the death penalty. If convicted of first-degree murder in Minnesota, Riess faces life without parole. The intentional second-degree murder charge carries a prison sentence of up to 40 years.

Court records do not list a defense attorney in Minnesota who could comment for Riess, who was granted a public defender. Her Florida public defender did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday. A case management hearing for Riess is scheduled for Sept. 5 in Fort Myers.

A St. Paul man engaged in a four-hour standoff with police in Maplewood on Tuesday night told officers he was armed and the only way he planned to leave the scene was in a body bag, authorities say.

Police eventually persuaded Kelly Gordon Sauer, 48, to climb out of the stolen vehicle in which he was holed up and surrender, according to charges filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

He was charged Thursday with one count of theft of a motor vehicle and a second count of fleeing police.

Sauer is expected to make his first court appearance in the case Friday. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

The incident began around 9:30 p.m. Monday after police ran the license plate of a dark Honda CRV and discovered it was reported stolen, according to the charges.

Officers activated their squad lights and initiated a traffic stop, but authorities say Sauer, who was driving the stolen CRV, took off.

He hurtled down St. Paul city streets into Maplewood, reaching speeds of around 90 mph on Larpenteur Avenue, according to the charges.

At some point, a train crossed his path and he was forced to turn left on Sylvan Street, which dead-ends at the St. Paul Regional Water Services plant.

Sauer attempted to turn around and drove through a front yard as well as a chain-link fence before his vehicle crashed into a retaining wall and came to rest, according to the charges.

Officers yelled for Sauer to exit the vehicle, but he refused, telling police he had a gun and that the only way he planned to exit the CRV was “in a body bag,” the complaint said.

Police set up a perimeter after one officer on scene thought he spotted the black barrel of a handgun emerge from Sauer’s window.

Throughout the standoff, Sauer reportedly insisted that he wanted to die, saying “he was stuck in an endless spiral of screwing up,” the complaint said.

But around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers persuaded him to climb out of the CRV and then took him into custody. No firearm was found inside the vehicle, but police did discover what appeared to be a suicide note, charges say.

He was released on conditions in that case but failed to appear for a hearing April 23 and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Sauer has nine prior felonies on his record, authorities say.

Like his grandfather and father before him, Manila Grant Shaver III was named after the Battle of Manila Bay, a big U.S. naval victory on May 1, 1898, in the Spanish-American War.

But most people just call the West St. Paul police chief by his nickname: “Bud.”

“Or else four-letter words,” he joked.

No one calls him Manila, police Lt. Brian Sturgeon said, “except his wife when she’s mad at him.”

Shaver, who is known for leading the police department with a sense of humor, is retiring Friday, which also happens to be his 63rd birthday. He’ll cap off a 37-year law enforcement career that began in St. Croix County (Wis.) and moved to West St. Paul in 1988.

“My wife put her foot down and said, ‘You’re done,’ ” Shaver said, only half-kidding. “I really enjoy what I do, but there are more things I want to do. There are things I haven’t finished here, but I suppose there will always be things I haven’t finished.”

LATEST IN STRING OF DEPARTURES

Shaver is among six Dakota County police chiefs to retire or leave their jobs over the past year, a cluster of departures that is not unheard of for the county; four chiefs departed in 2012 after reaching their 30-year-pension milestone.

Shaver is currently the longest-serving chief in the county, having been in the job since 2005.

“We have a list and I’m on the top of it,” he said. “It’s called the ‘dinosaur list.’ ”

After Friday, that top spot will belong to Jon Rechtzigel, who’s been the chief in Apple Valley since 2012.

“Now people are looking at me and going, ‘When are you leaving?’ ” Rechtzigel, 55, said, then laughed. “Not yet.”

Rechtzigel said he’s appreciated Shaver’s directness and sense of humor, especially at the monthly county chiefs’ meetings.

“Bud can be an intense guy, but he’s got a great sense of humor,” he said. “He’ll dive right into an issue. If there was a hot topic, Bud was going to be right there and mixing it up and getting things figured out. He’s just straight-up, and I really appreciate that about him. You always know where you stand with Bud.”

NEW CROP OF CHIEFS

The exodus of police chiefs in Dakota County is significant, said Hastings Police Chief Bryan Schafer, who serves as president of the Dakota County Chiefs of Police Association. He said the departures will present challenges for things such as county-wide collaborations until the replacements get up to speed.

“Six chiefs in a short period of time, that’s a lot,” he said. “That’s half of the contingent down here. But there are some new people coming on board who are educated with lots of experience and new ideas, fresh perspectives.”

One is Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Melissa Chiodo, who was sworn in May 13 and has the distinction of being the newest of the county’s police chiefs. Chiodo, who spent 23 years with Minneapolis police, replaces Paul Schnell, who left to be the state’s corrections commissioner.

But Chiodo’s rookie title won’t last for long. Burnsville police Capt. Tanya Schwartz will be sworn in as chief May 31, replacing Eric Gieseke, who retired April 30.

“It’s pretty close, but I’ve got a few weeks on her,” Chiodo said.

Schwartz also won’t hold the distinction for long. Mitch Scott retired as Rosemount’s chief in February, and this week the city council agreed to promote Cmdr. Mike Dahlstrom to fill the job, starting next month.

The revolving door first swung open a year ago, when Eagan Police Chief Jim McDonald retired. In August, former Farmington Police Chief Brian Lindquist stepped down amid city council pressure.

Shaver said the best thing a police chief can do before departing is “surround yourself with good people and have a good succession plan. That really minimizes the stress on the department and eases the transition.”

‘WORKS WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE’

A retirement party was held for Shaver in the council chambers at City Hall on Thursday. Past and present police officers from West St. Paul and departments across Dakota County and elsewhere crowded the room.

Also there was Dean Rossing, who worked with Shaver in St. Croix County. Shaver joined the county’s sheriff’s department in 1982 and also worked part-time for the village of Somerset, Wis.

Shaver didn’t change a bit over his career, Rossing said.

“Bud has been a guy who cares about his community and works with a smile on his face,” he said.

Shaver was smiling a lot Thursday as several people gave speeches. Sturgeon, the West St. Paul lieutenant, drew laughs when he recalled some of the stories about the chief, including the “airplane crash that only Bud witnessed … and the drunk that Bud and I saw outside Perkins. Bud likes to bring up that story.”

Sturgeon, who has been named the city’s interim police chief, said Shaver will be around City Hall past Friday.

“I’ve asked him for the last two weeks, ‘Bud, I need to know A, B and C. … This is really frickin’ important and I have no idea what this is,’ ” Sturgeon said. “He said, ‘When it comes to it just call me and I’ll come in for a day or so and just show you how that works and how to do that.’ ”

The party “was really humbling,” Shaver told the gathered crowd. “I would rather work than have you say nice things about me.”

A video tribute featured a telephone recording of a prank that officer Pat McCarty pulled on the chief a few years ago.

Shaver hung up the phone and walked back to the squad room, where officers broke out in laughter.

“Good times,” the police department wrote in Facebook post this week. “We’re going to miss you, Bud!”

A 27-year-old man with a gun permit told police he fired his weapon after he was chased by multiple people in St. Paul early Friday.

Soon after, a 15-year-old was brought to the hospital by three of his friends after being shot near his chin.

Officers responded to Jackson and Mount Airy streets just before 1 a.m., when a man called 911 to report that he took two shots at a group of people and someone may have been struck.

Police found the man with his hands in the air. He told them his gun was holstered on his shorts. The St. Paul man provided police with his permit to carry, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The man told officers he was driving a vehicle he had just purchased and parked on nearby Winter Street. He was walking toward his home when he saw a sedan drive by, stop, back up and then park.

The sedan’s driver and several males got out and walked toward the man. He reported that they were yelling at him and he ran across Jackson Street, with the males chasing him, Linders said.

“Fearing for his safety, he said he drew his firearm from his holster, turned to face the males he believed to be pursuing him and fired two rounds,” Linders said.

The individuals ran back to the sedan and drove away.

A few minutes after officers were dispatched to the shooting, other officers were called to Regions Hospital about a 15-year-old arriving with a gunshot wound. He was brought in by three juvenile friends.

The three males “were reluctant to share information about the incident” with police, Linders said. One said they were walking down a street when someone driving by in a black sedan shot them.

The 15-year-old, who was treated for a small wound, also said someone in a black sedan shot at them.

Police are investigating and have identified the people involved. No one was under arrest as of Friday afternoon.

BARRON, Wis. — A western Wisconsin man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents after the girl told the judge she that wanted him “locked up forever” for trying to steal her.

Jake Patterson, 21, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He admitted he broke into Jayme’s home in October, gunned down her parents, James and Denise Closs, made off with her and held her under a bed in his remote cabin for 88 days before she made a daring escape.

Jayme didn’t appear at Patterson’s sentencing hearing Friday, but a family attorney read her first public statements about her ordeal to Judge James Babler.

“He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. I was smarter,” the statement said. “I was brave and he was not. … He thought he could make me like him, but he was wrong. … For 88 days he tried to steal me and he didn’t care who he hurt or who he killed to do that. He should be locked up forever.”

The judge called Patterson the “embodiment of evil” before sentencing him to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of release on the homicide charges. He also ordered Patterson to serve 25 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision on the kidnapping count.

“There’s no doubt in my mind you’re one of the most dangerous men to ever walk on this planet,” Babler said.

Patterson sat shaking his head during most of the hearing. Offered a chance to speak, he said he would do anything to take back what he did.

“I would die,” he said. “I would do absolutely anything … to bring them back. I don’t care about me. I’m just so sorry. That’s all.”

The judge read statements that Patterson wrote in jail in which he said he had succumbed to fantasies about keeping a young girl and torturing and controlling her. He started looking for an opportunity to kidnap someone, even deciding he might want to take multiple girls and kill multiple families, according to the statements. Jayme was the first girl he saw after these thoughts entered his mind, he said.

Patterson’s attorneys, Richard Jones and Charles Glynn, told the judge that Patterson was isolated and that he overreacted to loneliness. They asked for leniency for Patterson, noting that he had pleaded guilty to spare Jayme and her family from a trial.

District Attorney Brian Wright told the judge that Patterson traveled to the Closs home on two separate occasions to kidnap her but turned back because of activity at her house.

He finally drove to the house during the early morning hours of Oct. 15 dressed in black and carrying his father’s shotgun. He shot James Closs through a window in the front door, blasted the lock and moved inside.

He found the bathroom door locked. He broke the door down and discovered Jayme and her mother clinging to each other in the bathtub. He tied Jayme up with tape, then shot Denise Closs in the head as she sat next to her daughter.

He dragged Jayme through her father’s blood and out to his car. He threw her in the trunk and drove her to his cabin in Gordon in Douglas County, about 60 miles northeast of Barron.

He kept her trapped under a bed using totes filled with weights and hit her with a curtain rod, Wright said.

“He kept her in constant fear, threatening her, telling her things would get worse,” Wright said.

Jayme finally escaped on Jan. 10 while Patterson was away. She flagged down a neighbor, who found someone to call police. Patterson was arrested minutes later as he returned to the cabin.

___

Richmond reported from Madison.

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — A 22-year-old Wisconsin man accused of inhaling chemical vapors before crashing into a group of Girl Scouts has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide charges for the deaths of three girls and one mother.

Colten Treu entered his pleas in Chippewa County Court Friday and a trial has been scheduled for January. He faces 11 charges and he pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Prosecutors say Treu was high on fumes from an aerosol can when he crashed into the Girl Scouts group picking up trash along a highway in Lake Hallie in November.

Treu’s attorney said there was no evidence that Treu had been huffing, citing a blood sample that failed to detect any chemicals. Prosecutors countered that Treu left the scene so a blood draw wasn’t taken until that evening.

Police are seeking the public’s help in locating a man believed to be involved in a home invasion and shooting in Chisago County.

A warrant has been issued for Nicholas Isaiah Antoine James, 18, suspected of breaking into a home in Sunrise Township shortly after midnight May 16 and shooting a 22-year-old man. Two teens and a woman have been arrested in connection to the incident.

Avante Bernard Mabry, 16, and Kerion Amare Briggs, 16, were charged in juvenile court for aiding and abetting attempted murder in the first degree and aiding and abetting aggravated robbery.

The woman, Shaena Marie Alberts, 19, has been charged with aiding and abetting aggravated robbery.

The Chisago County Attorney’s Office has petitioned the court to try the teens as adults, according to the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies responded to the residence May 16 after a 911 call reported shots fired. They arrived to find the suspects had fled the scene in an unknown vehicle.

Police have determined the suspects and the victim knew each other. The victim was transported by helicopter to a Twin Cities’ trauma center. He is in stable condition, according to police.

Police believe James is in the St. Cloud area and has ties to Chicago. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact local law enforcement. James should be considered armed and dangerous.

The Wisconsin man who abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killed her parents wrote that he fantasized “about keeping a young girl, torturing her and controlling her.”

Jake Patterson’s writings were summarized by Judge James Babler shortly before he sentenced Patterson to life in prison without any chance of release.

Babler said Patterson had written that “fear of hell” initially stopped him, but he stopped believing in God and began looking for an opportunity. Patterson wrote that he drove around looking for a girl to take but soon realize that wouldn’t work, then conceived of doing it in a home invasion.

Patterson told investigators he carefully planned and carried out his attack in October on the Closs family home near Barron.

Babler called Patterson “the embodiment of evil.”

Patterson sat shaking his head during most of the hearing. Offered a chance to speak, he said he would do anything to take back what he did.

“I would die,” he said. “I would do absolutely anything … to bring them back. I don’t care about me. I’m just so sorry. That’s all.”

BARRON, Wis. — Jayme Closs’ statement at Friday’s sentencing for Jake Patterson, the 21-year-old man who killed her parents and kidnapped her last October, holding her captive for 88 days before she escaped. Closs did not appear in court, and her statement was read in court by family attorney Chris Gramstrup:

“Last October, Jake Patterson took a lot of things that I loved away from me. It makes me the most sad that he took away my Mom and my Dad. I loved my Mom and Dad very much and they loved me very much. They did all they could to make me happy and protect me. He took them away from me forever.

“I felt safe in my home, and I loved my room and all of my belongings. He took all of that too. I don’t want to even see my home or my stuff because of the memory of that night. My parents and my home were the most important things in my life. He took them away from me in a way that will always leave me with a horrifying memory.

“I have to have an alarm in the house now just so I can sleep. I used to love to go out with my friends. I loved to go to school. I loved to do dance. He took all of those things away from me too. It’s too hard for me to go out in public. I get scared and I get anxious. These are just ordinary things that anyone like me should be able to do, but I can’t because he took them away from me.

“But there’s some things that Jake Patterson can never take from me. He can’t take my freedom. He thought that he could own me but he was wrong. 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 feel like what he did is what a coward would do. I was brave. He was not.

“He can never take away my spirit. He thought that he could make me like him, but he was wrong. He can’t ever change me, or take away who I am. 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.

“Jake Patterson will never have any power over me. I feel like I have some power over him, because I get to tell the judge what I think should happen to him. He stole my parents from me. He stole almost everything I love from me. For 88 days he tried to steal me, and he didn’t care who he hurt or who he killed to do that.

“He should stay locked up forever.”

BARRON, Wis. — The latest on the sentencing hearing for a Wisconsin man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents (all times local):

5:05 p.m.

The family of Jayme Closs says they are satisfied that the man who kidnapped her and killed her parents will be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Jake Patterson was sentenced Friday to life in prison without release. He had previously pleaded guilty to the Oct. 15 killings of James and Denise Closs and to Jayme’s abduction.

Jayme’s aunt, Jennifer Smith, said after the sentencing that this was an important step in helping Jayme to move forward. She said the family believes the outcome will give Jayme some “much needed peace of mind.”

Smith said Jayme has made progress, but has much work left to do. She has spent time with her friends, is doing homework, and hanging out with her dog.

Prosecutor Brian Wright says the case has always been about the courage of a 13-year-old girl who overcame incredible odds to escape and return home.

___

3:50 p.m.

The Wisconsin man who abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killed her parents wrote that he fantasized “about keeping a young girl, torturing her and controlling her.”

Jake Patterson’s writings were summarized by Judge James Babler shortly before he sentenced Patterson to life in prison without any chance of release.

Babler said Patterson had written that “fear of hell” initially stopped him, but he stopped believing in God and began looking for an opportunity. Patterson wrote that he drove around looking for a girl to take but soon realize that wouldn’t work, then conceived of doing it in a home invasion.

Patterson told investigators he carefully planned and carried out his attack in October on the Closs family home near Barron.

Babler called Patterson “the embodiment of evil.”

___

3:35 p.m.

A Wisconsin man will spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents.

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

Patterson was sentenced to life in prison without release on each homicide count and 25 years in prison on the kidnapping count. The sentences will be served consecutively.

___

3 p.m.

A prosecutor says a Wisconsin man who kidnapped 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killed her parents should never be released from prison.

Barron County District Attorney Brian Wright told a judge during Jake Patterson’s sentencing hearing Friday that Patterson would never stop trying to find and possibly kill Jayme if he gets out of prison.

He said Patterson can never get another opportunity to kidnap another girl and kill her or anyone with her.

Patterson’s attorney, Charles Glynn, countered that Patterson has pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping to spare the community a long, painful trial and allow the Closs family to heal.

Patterson is accused of abducting Jayme from her home near Barron after killing James and Denise Closs in October. He held Jayme captive in a remote cabin for 88 days before she escaped.

___

This item has been updated to correct that commenting defense attorney is Charles Glynn, not Richard Jones.

___

2:10 p.m.

Wisconsin teenager Jayme Closs says she wants to see the man who kidnapped her and killed her parents “locked up forever.”

Jayme’s words were read Friday at the sentencing hearing for Jake Patterson. The 21-year-old admitted kidnapping her and killing her parents in a carefully planned attack last October.

The 13-year-old didn’t appear in court Friday, but her guardian read a statement from her.

Jayme wrote that Patterson “thought that he could own me, but he’s wrong. I was smarter.”

Patterson held Jayme for 88 days at his isolated northern Wisconsin cabin before she escaped.

She says Patterson “thought he could make me like him. But he was wrong.” She also said Patterson “will never have any power over me.”

___

1:50 p.m.

Members of Jayme Closs’ family are asking a Wisconsin judge to sentence the man who kidnapped her and killed her parents to the maximum amount of time in prison.

Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping.

He admitted to abducting Jayme from her home near Barron after killing James and Denise Closs, in October. He held Jayme captive in a remote cabin for 88 days before she escaped.

Jayme’s aunt Sue Allard began a sentencing hearing Friday by telling the judge that she fell to the ground and screamed when she got learned Jayme had vanished and her parents were dead. She says Jayme lost everything.

Aunt Jennifer Smith said Jayme no longer has a 13-year-old’s life. She says her family lives in fear every day.

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8 a.m.

A Wisconsin man could spend the rest of his life behind bars for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents.

Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pleaded 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.

A judge will sentence Patterson on Friday. He faces up to life in prison without release on each homicide count, and up to 25 years in prison on the kidnapping count. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Members of Jayme’s family are expected to speak at Friday’s hearing. Patterson also has the option of addressing the court.

A body was recovered Friday in the St. Croix River, according to the Washington County sheriff’s office.

The body was found near the St. Croix Boom Site park and boat launch in Stillwater. Deputies had responded to the scene at about 1 p.m.

The sheriff’s office said the body was an adult male from Stillwater township.

Check back for updates.

Police rushed to a St. Paul middle school last month after a report of a student carrying a handgun in his pocket during gym class.

It turned out to be a realistic-looking BB gun that fell from his pants as he played basketball.

A week earlier, in an unrelated case, a 27-year-old man reported a driver pointed a rifle that looked like an AR-15 at him. Police found the driver, who said it was a BB gun.

As St. Paul police respond to calls of shootings and shots-fired, they’re also sounding the alarm about people carrying BB guns, air pistols and other replica guns that increasingly look like the real thing.

Police say they’re causing real fear for people on the other end of the barrel. And officers also cannot immediately tell they’re fake, which could lead to a deadly confrontation.

When police get a 911 call reporting someone with a weapon that looks like a gun, they have to respond as quickly as possible, said Sgt. Tina Kill, a St. Paul police gun investigator.

“If you want to play with a BB gun, go hunt in a legal area, like farmland, or go to a gun range where you can practice in a secure environment and you’re not going to cause panic with your neighbors,” she said. “These real-looking BB guns put everyone at risk — the people who have them, the community and the officers.”

Kill warns that people shouldn’t try to determine on their own whether a gun is real or fake, and she urges them to call 911.

CONCERN AT SCHOOLS ABOUT REPLICA GUNS

There have been 10 instances of a student bringing a toy or replica gun to a St. Paul public school this school year; it happened nine times the previous school year, said Laurie Olson, the school district’s director of security and emergency management.

“What we’re seeing in the last few years is that they look so real and that’s the really concerning part,” Olson said. “In the past, they used to be more easily identifiable as a toy or a pellet gun.”

Why do students bring BB or Airsoft guns to school? Their reasons have ranged from saying they forgot it was in their backpack, they had it for protection going to and from school, or they wanted to show it to a friend, Olson said.

In the incident last month, police were sent to Linwood Monroe Arts Plus’ middle school campus on a report of a student with a handgun. A 15-year-old student told a sergeant the gun was “fake” and was hidden in a hallway near the gym.

Police found a realistic-looking BB gun and arrested the student.

“The fear that created was incredible,” Olson said of the incident. The principal gathered all students in the auditorium to talk about the seriousness of it, she said.

Students can face criminal charges, along with discipline up to expulsion, for bringing a replica gun to school.

School district officials are looking into a public-awareness campaign with the police department at the start of the next school year, Olson said.

2 TEENS, 2 REAL-LOOKING BB GUNS

Around 5 a.m. on a Sunday in April, officers were called to a disturbance on Case Avenue, several blocks from Johnson Parkway.

A 19-year-old was standing on a handgun, leading an officer to unholster his own gun and point it at the young man. The officer directed everyone to move away from the gun.

Someone in the group said it was a BB gun, though it appeared identical to a real firearm, according to the police department.

A 17-year-old wouldn’t back away from the weapon and another officer went to detain her, but she pushed him.

As the officer tried to get her into custody, a handgun fell from her onto the ground. It also turned out to be a BB gun. Police arrested both teens.

The incident illustrates the dangers posed by replica guns, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

“In the heat of the moment, there’s no way to determine whether these guns are a BB gun or not,” he said.

There have been instances locally and around the United States of police officers shooting people, including teens, who were armed with a gun that appeared real but turned out to be a BB gun.

In 2012, St. Paul police officers fatally shot Melvin Fletcher Jr., 20, after he robbed the Kowalski’s grocery store on Grand Avenue. Numerous witnesses described Fletcher as being armed with a handgun during the hold-up.

An officer who recovered Fletcher’s gun after the shooting believed it was a semi-automatic handgun until he picked it up and realized it was plastic, according to a police report. It was a Beretta Airsoft pistol. A grand jury determined the officers were authorized to use deadly force.

In 2008, Minneapolis police pleaded with parents to take replica firearms away from their children after officers shot and wounded a 15-year-old. Police said the teen confronted officers with a realistic-looking fake gun.

AIRSOFT AFICIONADOS EMPHASIZE SAFETY

At Airsoft Station in Oakdale, most people come in to buy gear for “Airsofting” — a competitive sport similar to paintball — said Isaac O’Keefe, the store’s lead technician.

The toy guns use a plastic pellet that’s lighter than a BB, and people play on designated Airsoft fields or private land out in the country. Store employees emphasize that people should be wearing eye protection, and they also talk to them about transporting the replica guns safely and legally, O’Keefe said.

Airsoft Station sells Airsoft guns with a blaze orange tip, but the replica guns are otherwise “indistinguishable at first glance from a real firearm,” O’Keefe said.

People prefer their Airsoft guns to appear realistic because they want to look “tactically cool,” O’Keefe said. Some purchase them to practice gun safety and firearm training, so it’s helpful to have a replica that looks and functions similarly to real guns.

“Our goal is we want people to know how to be safe with them,” O’Keefe said. “They’re really fun to play with. But because they look so realistic, if people don’t know how to treat them safely, it can end up really ruining it for everyone else.”

‘WHERE IS THE REAL GUN?’

There were 221 replica guns found in St. Paul and turned into the police property room last year and 85 so far this year. In some cases, officers issue a warning and don’t confiscate the BB gun, said Kill, the gun investigator.

It’s against Minnesota law to carry a BB gun in public — except in places for hunting and target shooting — unless it’s unloaded and in a case. It’s also illegal to fire a BB gun in St. Paul, other than at target ranges.

The St. Paul city attorney’s office has charged 12 people with BB gun-related cases this year, not far behind the number charged in all of last year — 16.

In recent years, police have presented fewer cases for charging consideration, according to the city attorney’s office, and the number of prosecutions went from 35 in 2015 to 20 in 2017.

Police said they’re no longer citing people if they have a BB gun in a vehicle, but not on their person. And if someone uses a BB gun in a crime, they could be charged with aggravated robbery or aggravated assault, a more serious offense than BB gun possession.

Kill, who has been an officer for 24 years, said the biggest change she’s seen with BB guns in her career is how realistic they now appear. In the past, when officers found a young person with a BB gun “it was clear what it was because it was orange or so big and cartoonish, it was nothing like we’re seeing now.”

Recently, Kill set five guns on a cart in the property room.

“Where is the real gun?” she asked.

Three had a Glock inscription, one said Swiss Arms and the last was marked as a Powerline. She pointed out one Glock, which was her unloaded duty weapon; the rest were BB guns.

“You cannot tell the difference when you’re looking at this and certainly not if it’s being pointed at you,” Kill said. “It’s a bad idea to try and play with these weapons in the city, especially where we have actual gun violence happening.”

Police arrested a 39-year-old woman Sunday in connection with the fatal stabbing of another woman in a bustling area of downtown Minneapolis on Saturday night.

Homicide investigators worked through the night following leads after the 9:30 p.m. stabbing on the 800 block of Hennepin Avenue.

Mesheka Octavious Willis, 42, died of a stab wound to her chest, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.

Officers arrested Shermeika Nacole Franklin, 39, in connection with the homicide. She was booked into the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center on probable cause murder.

DULUTH, Minn. — A 16-year-old boy is dead after a shooting early Monday morning in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The Duluth Police Department responded to a report of a gunshot heard in the 2100 block of West Third Street at 2:47 a.m., spokeswoman Ingrid Hornibrook said in a statement. Officers found the victim dead at the scene.

Hornibrook did not say whether anyone was in custody or if any suspects were being sought, nor did she provide any further details on the circumstances of the shooting.

“Investigators are actively reviewing the scene and believe there is no threat to the public,” Hornibrook said. “Being this is currently an active investigation in the early stages, we will provide an update when more information becomes available.”

The same block was the scene of a shooting on April 23. In that case, authorities allege that 16-year-old Ausineese Aubin Dufault opened fire on a female acquaintance outside an apartment building, apparently grazing the victim in the head with one bullet.

Dufault, who posted bond and was released from the St. Louis County jail earlier this month, is charged with aggravated first-degree robbery and second-degree assault in that case.

Police have not said whether that incident is related to Monday’s shooting.

Duluth has now seen two homicides in 2019. The first occurred in January, when Larry Watczak, 70, was fatally assaulted inside his Park Point home. A suspect, 31-year-old Darrel Darryl Mayhew, is set to stand trial next week.

DULUTH, Minn. — Pine County sheriff’s officials are looking Monday for a suspect who shot a man as the victim drove away from an altercation.

The driver called deputies Saturday afternoon and told them he had been shot in the shoulder and was driving toward Hinckley. First responders met the man who was airlifted to a Duluth hospital.

Authorities say the victim and suspect knew each other. Witnesses say the two had a physical fight and the suspect walked back to his residence and retrieved a gun.

The victim was shot as he drove away and suffered non-life threatening injuries.