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 in his statement.
Mack fought through tears when she told District Judge Elissa Cadish on Monday that she still fears for her life if Koppenhaver were to leave prison.
"I do know when he gets out, he will kill me," she said.
"Not a day goes by that I don't seriously regret all those things that I did. I was a very, very lost, very empty person," Koppenhaver said in his statement. "And to top it off, something's not right with my head. Plain and simple. I've known that a long time and I've hated it. I've hated the way that I think. I've hated my impulses. Half the time, I don't know why I do some of the things I do. And some of the times I do things and I don't even feel like I did them until it's already done."
He blamed anxiety, depression and self-pity for his problems and said he would stand in front of a mirror and smash his face into his fists until his face was swollen.
"Smashing my face was like a sick form of therapy. It was the only thing I could do to prevent myself from killing myself," he said.
Koppenhaver claimed to be a changed person now, saying he found God after reading two books by author Lee Strobel that used history and science to prove "Jesus is real."
