The former mixed martial arts fighter known as War Machine was sentenced to life in prison Monday for kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend over the course of several hours in 2014, and of beating her male friend when he found them together in her bedroom.
Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver will be eligible for parole in 36 years, when he will be 71 years old.
A jury convicted Koppenhaver in March. The jurors deadlocked on two attempted-murder counts but convicted him of 29 felonies stemming from attacks on Christy Mack and Corey Thomas.
Koppenhaver talked about his troubled past and referred to the late Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL player who committed suicide in a Massachusetts prison in April.
“I should have killed myself by now. There’s no reason right now that I shouldn’t be in the dirt right now laying next to Aaron Hernandez. That’s 100 percent true,” Koppenhaver said.
Mack told District Judge Elissa Cadish on Monday that she still fears for her life, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
