Men Get Decades In Prison For Women's Abduction, Torture
ISHPEMING, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - Two Upper Peninsula men will spend decades behind bars for the abduction and torture of two women in the basement of a business.
A Marquette County judge earlier this week sentenced 44-year-old Jason Sadowski to 40-80 years in prison, and 65-year-old Charles Cope to 25-40 years in prison.
The men were convicted in March of multiple charges stemming from the July 2, 2013 incident. Both were found guilty of torture and unlawful imprisonment. Sadowski also was convicted of assault and solicitation of murder, but found not guilty of criminal sexual conduct.
One of the victims addressed her attackers before their sentences were handed down, saying "As much as I've tried to escape that night, I have consciously relived the horror and I wake up scared." The other victim died from unrelated circumstances prior to trial.
Ishpeming police say one of the women was able to get a cellphone and call 911, and officers found the women duct-taped to support posts in the basement of Sadowski's martial arts studio.
The women, ages 44 and 30, told police they met Sadowski at a bar and agreed to accompany him back to his studio to smoke marijuana and learn more about martial arts, the Mining Journal of Marquette reported.
The women testified that Sadowski went into a rage after they told him they had taken $4 from his wallet.
"Things got pretty crazy pretty quick," one woman testified. "He punched me with such intensity that I flew off the computer desk chair."
The women testified that after they were tied to the posts, Sadowski would come and go from the room, sometimes punching, kicking or choking them, or smashing their heads against the posts. The women said the ordeal went on for at least four hours, and testified that Sadowski had a knife on him the entire time.
Police say Sadowski later asked one woman to kill the other.
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