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Decorum was briefly broken in Buena Vista Circuit Court on Friday, with gasps and a smattering of claps rang out from the family of Philip Edmond “Jay” Patterson II, as Judge Christopher Russell sentenced Patterson’s murderer – his son, Jonathan Kane Patterson – to life in prison for first-degree murder.
“It’s a hard case, and there’s nothing happy about it, really,” said Buena Vista Commonwealth’s Attorney Joshua Elrod after the sentencing. “[There’s] nothing happy about today, except that our justice system works. I think it was successful in this case, and I hope it provides some room for the community, and particularly the family, to heal.” Patterson was convicted of first-degree murder in Buena Vista Circuit Court last December at the conclusion of a two-day trial for the murder of his father last February. Patterson was also charged with – and convicted of – a charge of arson of an occupied dwelling for setting a fire in his father’s house in an attempt to cover up the crime, for which Russell sentenced him to 20 years in prison with 10 years suspended. The fact that the dwelling wasn’t destroyed, Russell said, mitigated imposing the maximum sentence of life in prison for the arson.
For the murder, the judge concluded that there were no mitigating factors, and even some elements that the presentence report, which recommended a maximum sentence of 71 years, did not take into consideration, including “the severity of the premeditation.”
“All first degree murder requires willful, deliberate, or premeditated killing, and that was proven here, but the guidelines do not capture the extent of the cold-blooded, deliberate, premeditated killing [in this case],” he said. “And the guidelines do not factor in the way this victim of tortured. It was a brutal killing. They do factor in the weapon, but not how the defendant did this in a manner that had to have tortured the victim of this homicide.”
Jay Patterson was killed in his bed by sharp force trauma on the morning of Feb. 11, 2022, as a result of 18 stab wounds, including six to his head, five to his neck and four to his chest. After he was dead, the body and bed were doused with gasoline and lit on fire.
Russell also cited Jonathan Patterson’s previous criminal record as a factor in his decision, noting that the two violent felonies on his record (one count of assault on law enforcement and one count of strangulation), “in the judgment of the court requires that this community, that any community, be protected from him.”
Both charges were filed in Rockbridge County Circuit Court, the assault on law enforcement charge in 2008 and the strangulation charge the strangulation charge in 2021. Patterson pled guilty to both, receiving a two-year sentence for the assault charge (one year and six months suspended) and four years for the strangulation charge (three years and five months suspended). He was out on bond pending the plea for the strangulation charge when he committed the homicide, with the guilty plea being entered in April of 2022.
Patterson’s defense attorney, Mike Hallahan, in his closing argument, noted that the previous felonies, when factored into the sentencing report, added almost 22 years to the midpoint of the sentencing recommendations and without them, the recommendation would have been a sentence of 22 to 49 years, with a midpoint of 35 years, instead of the recommended 43 to 71 years with a midpoint of 57 years. Hallahan asked the court to consider a sentence of 35 years.
“With him being 36 years old, even a sentence of around 35 years is a significant period of time,” he said. “He’ll be in his late 60s, if he makes it that long, to be released.”
Elrod, in his closing arguments, asked for a life sentence on both charges, noting that there isn’t “a more serious crime that comes before the court than a first-degree murder,” adding that Jay Patterson’s murder was “a horrific crime even by that standard, and one that, from the evidence, was born out of hatred and cruelty.”
He also noted that Patterson “has displayed no emotion” throughout the course of the trial and sentencing hearing, and that when he had an opportunity “to take some responsibility or show some level of remorse in the presentence investigation process, he has not done so.
“I think it’s rare for a crime – any crime, even a minor crime – to come before this court where a defendant is less remorseful and takes less responsibility,” he said. “I think that’s an indication of future dangerousness.”
-Members of the Patterson family took the stand prior to the sentencing to read statements about how the crime has affected them individually and the family as a whole, addressing many of their comments to the defendant directly.
Kelly Patterson Mills, Jonathan’s sister, testified that since the murder of her father, she has been diagnosed with “extreme PTSD” and hasn’t been able to work due to the trauma, only being able to get out of bed “because I have two boys who rely on me.
“It’s been a year and four months, and I still wake up picturing what you did to my daddy every single day, non-stop,” she said to her brother. “Since that point, I have lost myself and I’ve lost my family. I mourn my daddy every single day. You have stolen a part of our family … You have torn the hearts out of our aunt and our uncles … The glue that held our family together is gone.”
Mills recalled that, on the day of the murder that she was “in hysterics and could hardly breathe” after getting the news that they hadn’t been able to get Jay Patterson out of the burning house.
“At that time, I even considered you,” she said. “All I asked was where you were, if anybody had talked to you so that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt yourself. It makes me sick to my stomach that you even crossed my mind. You created the worst nightmare for all of us.
“No matter what happens, I’ll never get closure,” she added. “I hope and pray you sit there thinking every day about your family, [and] about what you’ve done to us. I wish it could be an eye for an eye, but since that can’t be possible, I can only pray that you get life [in prison] and that you’re only able to look at four concrete walls closing in on you until you drive yourself insane. And you will rot in hell for what you’ve done.”
Leslie Dorey, Jay Patterson’s sister, also testified that she has suffered psychological damage as a result of “this brutal, senseless, selfish, horrific act.”
“This has completely broken me as a person,” she said. “I’m not the same mother, daughter, sister, [or] friend I used to be. I’ve done all that I can do to keep it together, but I am still falling apart.
“My child and my family are paying for your sins, because I’m not that same person,” she added. “When something that traumatic happens in your life, how do you continue to be that person that everyone wants you to be and who they’re used to having in their life? To have a brother you cherish, love, and adore taken away, a part of you dies with them, no matter how many siblings you have. … Everything you knew, or thought you knew, or wanted to know, does not matter. Nothing matters. How is that fair to those who love me, to have to live with who I am today because of you?” Dorey concluded her statement with a direct appeal to Judge Russell to “make [Jonathan] be held accountable for his actions in taking the life of my brother, a father, an uncle, a papaw, a friend and a son.
“When someone kills, they only think of themselves and do not care for whoever else they destroy in the end,” she said. “Please, your honor, give him life [in prison]. May God have no mercy on his soul.”
