Jake Messer did not kill anyone; Tonisha Hendrickson did. Mr Messer, prosecuted seriously, was sentenced to life in prison; Miss Hendrickson, treated leniently by Lexington prosecutors, got ten years, much of which she had already served.
Kentucky man sentenced to life in prison in kidnapping over a botched drug deal
by Bill Estep | Wednesday, June 1, 2022 | 11:26 AM EDT
Jake and George Messer. Photo via Clay County News. Click to enlarge.
A southeastern Kentucky man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman after a drug deal went bad has been sentenced to life in prison.
A jury in federal court convicted Jake Messer, 39, of Whitley County, on charges of kidnapping a man and his girlfriend in April 2018.
Messer believed the male victim, who was not named in court documents, had stolen $10,000 that Messer had provided to buy marijuana, according to court documents.
The man thought he had arranged to buy marijuana, but the purported dealers were con men who stole the cash, Todd E. Tremaine, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in an affidavit.
Messer directed the kidnapping of the man in an effort to figure out if he was involved in taking the money, and kidnapped the man’s girlfriend as what one witness called “human collateral,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Reed said in a sentencing memorandum.
Read more here.
The woman was raped at least twice while she was held.
But this is how criminals should be treated: try them, convict them, lock them up, and throw away the key.
The Messers were bad seed: Jake Messer had a previous conviction for distributing methamphetamines and other drugs, and his father, George Oscar Messer, who raped the kidnapped victim at least once, also received a life sentence. But, as far as I could tell, they didn’t kill anyone, unlike Miss Hendrickson, Xavier Hardin, Seantel Watson, Jemel Barber, Malachi Jackson, and James Ragland, who were all allowed to plead down in exchange for more lenient sentences.
The Messrs Messer were prosecuted by the Feds, and not local prosecutors. But Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn ought to take notice: we can lock away bad guys for the rest of their miserable lives, rather than allowing them to plead down to lesser offenses and being able to look forward to eventually getting out of jail while they are still relatively young.