Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News
NEW MEXICO — The Wisconsin man accused of kidnapping teen Jayme Closs and murdering her parents can be seen throwing punches and dodging hits from a fellow inmate inside a New Mexico prison, according to newly released surveillance footage.
Jake Patterson in May was sentenced to life behind bars for killing James and Denise Closs before abducting their teenage daughter, Jayme, and holding her hostage for 88 days. The case claimed headlines nationwide for months, which has sparked concerns about the 22-year-old murderer’s safety behind bars.
Less than a month after he was transferred from a Wisconsin prison to a facility in New Mexico, Patterson was caught on surveillance video tussling with a fellow inmate.
The pair speak briefly before the inmate, dressed in white, attempts to strike Patterson, who immediately returns the punch. Three other men can be seen watching television nearby as the scuffle unfolds.
According to documents provided to the Green Bay Press Gazette by the New Mexico Department of Corrections, a pair of inmates approached Patterson on Aug. 28 in the gym area and ordered him to leave. They told him he couldn’t “stay on the line” and “questioned his case involving a 14-year-old girl.”
Neither inmate was seriously injured in the incident, which came to an end only after a corrections officer fired a bean bag round at the railing in front of the fighting duo.
Patterson was placed on restrictive housing following the incident.
Closs was taken from her Barron home in October 2018 and emerged from the woods some 70 miles away nearly three months later. She flagged down help from a woman who had been walking her dog and they immediately rushed to the closest residence, where they called the police.
Patterson was arrested just minutes after the teen turned up in the small town of Gordon thanks to Jayme, who provided officers a description of her captor’s vehicle.