Mom’s powerful five-word message to smug kidnapper who tortured her daughter with a baseball bat during four days of hell

A mom fiercely delivered a powerful five-word statement to her daughter’s kidnapper as she urged a judge to put him behind bars before he was sentenced.  

William Mozingo, 34, pleaded guilty in court on Tuesday to felony counts of kidnapping, abduction, felonious assault and strangulation for kidnapping Chloe Jones in Kenmore, Ohio and holding her in an overhead space in his garage in October 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge from another case in which he escaped from a community corrections facility, WJW reports.

But before a judge sentenced him to prison, she heard victim impact statements from Jones and her mother Jessi Barham, who spoke directly to the smug kidnapper in her remarks.

‘You don’t scare me, William,’ Barham told him as he turned away from her.

Jones had been homeless when Mozingo accosted her and promised her shelter in October 2023, the victim told Judge Susan Baker Ross on Tuesday, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Instead, he tied her up and held her without water for four days, repeatedly telling her she would never see her family again.

Mozingo doused her with gas and repeatedly hit her with a baseball bat, before Jones was finally discovered battered and bruised by the owner of the garage who tipped off police. 

He also recorded more than 400 videos as he held Jones against her will, 10 of which were played in court on Tuesday.

Mozingo could be heard in the clips threatening Jones, demanding payment for cigarettes and threatening to burn her alive. 

‘All I could think about was my son and that I would never see him again and that I would never make it out alive,’ Jones testified after the videos were played. 

Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jamila Mitchell said Jones suffered a traumatic brain injury, broken nose, a broken hand, bruising across her entire body, swollen eyes and long-lasting mental trauma.

Barham also said her daughter was left paralyzed on the left side of her face, was in the intensive care unit for three days and can no longer retain any new information.

‘You did this to my daughter, you did this to my child and you’re not a man, that’s not what a man does – a man protects women,’ she said.

‘You are evil, you’re a villain and you should never be allowed to see the light of day ever again because you are a predator, and you have an MO and you have proven it time and time and time again,’ Jones continued, adding: ‘My daughter is never going to be the same.

‘She’s going to suffer probably way longer than him, which is not fair.’ 

Barham went on to urge the judge to ‘protect every single woman he could get his hands on’ and keep him in prison ‘until he is feeble, until he is wetting his diapers.’

She noted that Mozingo has previously pleaded guilty in four other abduction or kidnapping-related cases. 

He was first jailed for abduction in 2011, and was on parole for further kidnapping offences when he attacked both Mastin and Jones. 

In 2014, he was sentenced to nine months for abduction and he was arrested again in 2017 for holding a woman at knifepoint in a Walmart restroom.

Jailed for 18 months after the attack on Mastin he was released in December 2018.

Four months later, he was arrested for imprisoning a 29-year-old ex-girlfriend at his home in Canton, beating her, strangling her and holding a knife to her throat.

She was found on a nearby road unconscious, badly beaten and half-naked four days later before being rushed to hospital with a severe head injury.

Stark County Court sentenced him to another 18 months, and he was released on parole ahead of his latest recorded attack. 

Additionally, Mozingo pleaded guilty to felonious assault in an unrelated 2020 case and was sentenced to six months in jail for possession of drugs, and he was already on he state’s violent crime registry.

‘The fact of the matter is that this man should not have been out,’ Barham said, telling the judge: ‘You have the chance to do what every other judge has failed to do.’

But Mozingo claimed he was under the influence of drugs when he kidnapped Jones, as he pleaded for leniency.

‘I would like to say that this incident stemmed from when we were fueled up on methamphetamines,’ he said.

‘I have had a lot of time to think and reflect and I would like to apologize to the victim and the family.’

Still, Baker wound up sentencing Mozingo to between 25 years to 31 and a half years behind bars.

‘The conduct here is extreme,’ she said as she handed down the sentence. ‘I think it should be met with extreme punishment.

‘The pain and harm that you caused the victim will never be gone from her.’

Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich praised the sentence following the hearing.

‘William Mozingo’s criminal history has proven that the streets are safer when he is behind bars,’ Kolkovich said in a statement.

‘We are thankful that the victim survived this horrific crime and hope this sentence will allow her the peace to begin to move on from this terrible crime.’

If Mozingo is to be released from prison, he will be required to register with the county sheriff each year for 10 years.