Video shows Patterson prison fight
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The man who kidnapped Wisconsin teen Jayme Closs and killed her parents got into a fight in a New Mexico prison with an inmate who asked about the case.
Video obtained from the New Mexico Corrections Department show two inmates at an unnamed prison in that state approached Patterson on Aug. 28 and told him to leave the pod because of his case “involving a 14-year-old girl.”
Patterson said he would talk to whoever wanted him gone, but one of the inmates told Patterson not to “test him.” Video surveillance shows the other inmate got angry and took an “aggressive approach” toward Patterson, who punched one of them. They exchanged blows and wrestled until a prison staffer fired a bean bag round that hit a railing. An investigation ensued but the findings are unclear, Press-Gazette Media reported.
The records also show the team that transferred Patterson had to drive straight from Wisconsin to New Mexico because no other state would assume responsibility for Patterson while the team rested.
The incidents raise questions about whether any prison can shield the details of Patterson’s crimes. Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if the agency expected his past would go undiscovered.
According to a criminal complaint, Patterson told investigators that he had never met Jayme before he abducted her and that he had simply spotted her getting on the school bus one day and decided to take her. He blasted his way into her family’s house with a shotgun, killed her parents, dragged her out of the house past their bodies, stuffed her in the trunk of his car and drove off.
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