Ishpeming torture & kidnapping trial goes to the jury

A jury in Marquette is considering the fate of Jason Sadowski and Charles Cope. As ABC 10 senior reporter Mike Hoey reports, the torture and kidnapping trial for the two Ishpeming men went to the jury at about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Closing arguments took place Tuesday morning. Marquette County Prosecutor Matt Wiese began his by playing the 911 call that the woman we’ve referred to as Alleged Victim 1 made on July 2nd, 2013.

A dispatcher said during the call, “While I’m talking to you, my partner is getting the police over there, okay?” Alleged Victim 1 said, “(Sadowski and Cope will) kill me if they come to the door; do you understand that?”

Wiese referred to testimony that Alleged Victim 1 believed she was going to die in the basement of Sadowski’s gym and that she’d been told the only way she could get out would be to kill Alleged Victim 2.

“Put yourself in their circumstance and imagine what you would be thinking and feeling, based upon what they told you happened,” Wiese said. “Would that cause you to have severe emotional pain? Mental suffering? I submit that it does.”

Cope’s attorney, Karl Numinen, agreed with Wiese’s characterization of Sadowski as a controlling man whose control also extended to Cope. He described what he claimed was Cope’s thought process.

“‘If I cut these women loose; if I’m down here and I cut them loose, they’re going to go upstairs. (Sadowski)’s going to kill them’,” Numinen said. “‘If I get caught dialing 911, we’re all going to die’. (Cope) said, ‘I can’t help you. If I do, he’s going to come after me and we’re all going to die’.”

Sadowski’s attorney, Timothy Quinnell, reminded the jury that police never took fingerprint or DNA evidence from the scene.

“They’ve got two women who were in the basement, claiming to be tied up there for hours and hours and beaten. And if what they said was accurate, even (Ishpeming Police) Chief (Dan) Willey said they would have been coming out in body bags.”

Because Sadowski would use tape and other items that were present in the gym every day, Wiese said fingerprints or DNA would have little to no value as evidence. Both defendants could go to prison for life if convicted.