Life sentence for Cedar Rapids woman who confined and beat teen for hours

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids woman was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for kidnapping and repeatedly beating a 15-year-old girl for more than nine months in 2019 until the girl, having suicidal thoughts, reached out to police.

Mary Jane Jackson Thomas, 47, was found guilty by a Linn County jury in March of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and two counts each of willful injury causing serious injury, willful injury causing bodily injury and going armed with intent.

The jury deliberated about two hours before returning a guilty verdict, following a three-an-a-half-day trial.

According to testimony, a doctor described the girl’s extensive injuries all over her body as “torture.”

Jackson Thomas, originally from Micronesia, admitted in a videotaped police interview played for jurors Thursday that she repeatedly slapped, scratched, bit and struck the teen with a hammer and extension cord, but she didn't admit to kidnapping — confining the teen against her will.

The woman, in the police interview, blamed the teen for being 'bad” and causing Jackson Thomas to punish her. She said the teen wouldn't listen to her and lied, which is why she punished her from Jan. 1 through Oct. 11, 2019.

The victim, now 17, also originally from Micronesia, was at the sentencing but declined to make a statement.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter asked the 6th Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill to sentence Jackson Thomas to life and run the other charges consecutively to send a message that “abhorrent treatment of a child is not tolerated and to deter others from these types of acts.”

Slaughter said the teen moved here in hopes of having a brighter future, but instead she was “subjected to a nightmare.” She called Jackson Thomas’ comments of blaming the child for her actions, even after trial — in the presentencing report — “appalling.”

Jackson Thomas, in the report, said her feelings were hurt because the girl turned her back on her once she came to Iowa, as a way to justify her behavior and treatment of the child, Slaughter pointed out.

“She tried to break her, break her spirit and steal her innocence, but the defendant failed,” Slaughter said. “She is thriving. I’m equally repulsed by (the teen’s) father’s actions and lack of action to protect the child.”

Mike Lahammer, lawyer for Jackson Thomas, asked the judge to run the other sentences concurrent to the mandatory life sentence. He said they respected the jury’s verdict but don’t believe a kidnapping in one’s own household is how the lawmakers intended this law to be used.

Before sentencing, Lahammer, in an argument for a new trial, said the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence and the prosecution did not prove elements of the kidnapping charges.

Thornhill flatly disagreed and denied the motion. He said the evidence supports every offense charged. He also found the victim’s testimony credible. “I believe every word she said,” Thornhill said.

He also found sufficient evidence of confinement — kidnapping the teen by holding her in the bathroom for hours and beating her.

During trial, the teen testified those beatings were the worst. She was locked in the bathroom, forced to strip off her clothes and stand in the bathtub while Jackson Thomas beat her. Those beatings, she said, lasted for hours.

During sentencing, Jackson Thomas apologized for her actions because she respects laws and has tried to live up to them. She said her actions were not done out of “malice.” She asked the judge to consider her culture, where they “discipline our children to correct their ways.” She failed to realize that what may be accepted in her culture are not acceptable in America, she said.

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