Ex-MMA fighter gets 36 years to life in kidnap, beating case
LAS VEGAS — The former mixed martial arts fighter known as War Machine was sentenced Monday to 36 years to life in Nevada state prison for kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting his porn actress ex-girlfriend and attacking her male friend at her Las Vegas home in 2014.
Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver, 35, offered an apology full of self-loathing during his sentencing on 29 felony and misdemeanour charges in the attacks on Christy Mack and Corey Thomas. He called himself a “very lost, very empty person” who hated his aggressive impulses and “should have killed myself by now.”
“Sometimes I didn’t realize what I did until I’d already done it,” Koppenhaver told Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Cadish. “I hate that this happened.”
Koppenhaver will be 71 before he’s eligible for parole.