Posted on 07/16/2003 5:00:27 PM PDT by demlosers
Judge rejects plea for leniency and calls retired handyman a sick coward who should die in prison for his reign of terror
SYRACUSE (New York) - A judge sentenced a retired handyman to 18 years to life in prison on Tuesday, calling the defendant 'a sick coward' and 'an evil man' for keeping five women as sex slaves in a concrete bunker.
John Jamelske, 68, pleaded guilty last month to kidnapping five women and girls and holding them from 1988 till he was caught this year at his home in DeWitt, a Syracuse suburb.
None of the victims appeared in court for his sentencing, but prosecutors read excerpts from statements that each of them submitted to the court. A 16-year-old victim wrote that she almost gave up hope as she was raped daily.
'Please lock him up and never allow him to perpetrate on any young, innocent girls again,' she said. 'He is an old, sick man, and he is never going to change. I hope you die in the cold, cement cell, like you wanted us to do.'
Another woman, according to a statement by her attorney, wanted him 'sentenced to the foulest dungeon in creation for all of eternity'.
Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi ignored a plea for leniency from Jamelske's lawyer. 'You are a sick coward. You are an evil man,' he told Jamelske. 'You are a kidnapper and rapist, a master manipulator of people and the truth, but your reign of terror is over.
'There is no doubt in my mind that you should die in prison for what you have done to these five women.'
Jamelske cried in court and apologised. 'I'm sorry for what I did and how it affected everyone. God bless all of them.'
He told the authorities he began seeking out women in 1988 after his wife became bedridden with cancer and was unable to satisfy his sexual urges. She died in 1999.
He was arrested in April after a teenager, whom he held captive for six months, sneaked a telephone call to her sister when he took her out on errands. After his arrest, police identified four other women who said he abducted and raped them dating back to 1988.
The victims ranged in age from 13 to 53 and were held captive for between two months and three years.
They have said that Jamelske made them keep diaries detailing their sexual encounters, had them do senseless tasks and tricked them into believing others were involved, that they would be sold as slaves on the Internet and that they had no chance of escape.
The bunker - which will be demolished next month - consists of two rooms, each measuring 3.6m by 3.6m, with a 2.1m ceiling. It was accessible only through a steel door in the basement wall.
Each count carried a maximum penalty of 25 years to life in prison. -- AP
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You certainly are not very creative.
Let me give it a shot: I say we convict him to life in a Women's Reformatory. Take him there, strip him of his clothes and turn him loose inside the Common Area.
The "Ladies" will take care of the rest.
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