From a careful review of years of voluminous court and Dept of Corrections documents and parole hearing transcripts, below are examples of Wideman's horrendous behavioral history, both in and out of prison, from early childhood up to today.
· Jacob Wideman was a very disturbed child as evidenced by the following findings:
o Wideman displayed chronic childhood and adolescent problems with emotional control.
o He acknowledged weekly stealing from stores in adolescent years for a 4-year period, reporting that he felt good about not getting caught.
o Encopresis (soiling of pants frequently) until age 17.
o Wrote letters in blood “Killing solves problems” as an adolescent found by his mother.
o Attempted to sexually molest his sister at age 14/15, when she was 9 years old, on multiple occasions and exposed himself to her friends.
o Starting at age 6, Wideman had life-long violent images of hurting others. At his parole hearing in 2011, Wideman admitted to having violent thoughts his entire life.
o Obsessional thoughts lifelong, with stalking type behavior towards females.
o Stole family car and wrecked it as a suicide attempt at age 15.
o Wideman’s pathology only became worse as he savagely could not resist his urges to kill. The story Wideman and his supporters consistently tell is that his crime was an impulsive act, but that is just not true. The depth of this pathology continued throughout Wideman’s adulthood.
o While awaiting trial at a psych hospital, Wideman got into an altercation which was reported to Police as an attempted murder of another patient.
Institutional Record Review and Other Notable Items
· While incarcerated in the Flagstaff jail, awaiting trial, he admitted to the 1985 murder of Shelli Wiley in Laramie, Wyoming, 1 year before Eric’s murder. He later recanted his confession through the advice of his attorney. This murder has not been solved to date.
· He admitted to multiple physical fights resulting in bodily harm, disobeying of orders, and use of obscene language in prison for much of his 25-year minimum sentence.
· On 5/17/1989 (around age 19), Wideman was verbally abusive towards staff and was defiant and disobeyed directives of staff.
· On 4/18/1992 (around age 22), Wideman was restricted from recreation due to not following an order. According to the CO’s report, Wideman responded with “hollering profanities and approached me in a threatening manner. I instructed the inmate to go back to his room, which he refused and continued his verbal assault.” Wideman was sent to 24-hour lockdown for this incident.
· On 5/15/1992 (around age 22), Wideman’s cellmate was found bloodied and slashed in the face with some sort of cutting object. Several witnesses stated that Wideman assaulted this other inmate. Wideman was missing a shirt that was flushed down the toilet which was believed to conceal evidence. Wideman appealed this conviction, citing his civil rights were violated because the prison would not let him confront his accusers/witnesses, and this charge was dropped. This institutional note reports it was believed Wideman bashed his cellmates head into a wall.
· On 6/30/1993 (around the age 23), he assaulted 2 prison guards. He hired attorneys to fight this conviction but failed. Wideman was placed in a behavioral management unit for an extended period due to his risk to others. Wideman required a highly structured environment.
· On 10/1/94 (around age 24), Wideman made aggressive verbal comments that were not appropriate while on work detail and would not take instructions from staff on how to serve portions. Wideman was verbally counseled about his behavior.
· On 9/15/1995 (around age 25), Wideman himself stated: “He needed to be isolated before he hurt someone.” Wideman was then placed on “watch” for the safety of others.
· On 5/6/1997 (around age 27), Incident Report of blood exposure due to first aid and restraint of Wideman by medical staff. Admitted to St Mary’s Hospital from a suicide attempt, due to multiple lacerations to his arms. Wideman stated if he survived: “I would do it again.”
· On 7/16/1997 (around age of 27), he intimidated and stalked a seasoned female correctional officer. She stated in a write up about Wideman for disobeying staff “In my career with ADOC, I have never had such an uneasy feeling about an inmate. I fear him in that it seems he could blow at any time, and I don’t want to be his victim. I do not know if his behavior is only towards me or towards all female officers here. In either case, all staff should be aware of his presence and behavior. I would also prefer not to be assigned to his living area. Wideman’s presence gave me a very uncomfortable feeling as he appears to be emotionally unstable. In past years he was known to have followed me around the yard or watch me from other huts. He seems to need to know where I am and make his presence known.”
· From 2/7/1998 to 2/23/1998 (around age 28), Wideman was put on 30-minute intervention watch for instability for over 2 weeks.
· On 6/9/99 (around age of 29), Wideman had discipline for trying to claim property that was not his in the laundry.
· In an 8/8/2000 (around age 30) Information Report, Wideman states: “It’s happening again.” He reported he is losing control, and he fears he is a danger to himself or others. Followed up by DOC mental Health Provider, Ann Middaugh, who later became his 1st wife.
· On 9/2/2000 (around age 30), Wideman went to the nurse “to get patched up” and placed “On report” and a doctor ordered 10-minute suicide watch intervention.
· On 10/8/2000 (around age 30), Wideman was cited for failure to produce a random urine analysis when requested. This charge was dismissed, as he claimed that a medicine he was taking impacted his ability to produce a sample. His attorneys got this charge dismissed.
· In 2002 (around age 32), Wideman had a verbal outburst in the dining area. Wideman was screaming: “Fuck Canteen. These guys are trying to fuck us out of chow.”
· In 2007 (around age 37), Wideman was part of a group of inmates that needed to be disbanded for blaring loud music and in possession of pornographic materials (contraband).
· Wideman developed an illegal and unethical relationship with a mental health therapist (Ann Middaugh), who treated him as a patient while in prison. She worked with Wideman for several years in wellness checks and group therapy and was his primary therapist, with weekly sessions for 2 years. They married in 2004 and divorced in 2006. Wideman filed for divorce, although he made claims to the clemency board that she filed for divorce. DOC policy states that previous employees need to wait 2 years post departure from the facility before visitation is allowed. This did not happen.
· Wideman developed an illegal and unethical relationship with another therapist who was working with him from approximately June 2003 to June 2006. Marta Desoto provided wellness checks and group therapy and occasional individual therapy to Wideman over her time working with him. Desoto started visiting Wideman in March 2007 to court Wideman. This was merely 4 months after Wideman’s divorce to Anne Middaugh. Desoto and Wideman became engaged in 2011, they report, but this is disputed. They married in 2013, in prison. Desoto and Wideman kept this relationship a secret from the father of her children until the children told their father in 2014, after she had brought them to prison to meet Wideman. Wideman and Desoto affirmatively coached the children to lie to their father about their mother’s relationship with Wideman. Mother told the children, “Jake hurt someone in a fight a long time ago and had to go to prison.” Desoto continues to lie to the now adult children about Wideman’s history. DOC policy states that previous employees need to wait 2 years post departure from the facility before visitation is allowed. This did not happen.
· Wideman admits in clemency hearings that his symptoms were “out of control” most of prison until 2006 (around age 36), when he started DBT, a walking mediation therapy.
In 2011 (around age 41) -- Psych counselor said that Wideman has a history of cutting. This means that a person intentionally harms himself with a sharp implement, not in an attempt to kill himself, but often to provide a physical sensation to relieve a psychic one. It is a marker of impulsivity and one that is most often associated with Borderline Personality Disorder.
· In 2012 (around age 42), Wideman was admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit for instability of mood and hopeless despair and obsessional thoughts. Several days of inpatient care and months of therapy to stabilize his mood were required in 2012.
· In 2015, Wideman and Desoto fought an AZ Family Court order prohibiting contact with the children. Wideman refused to release his mental health records for the court appointed Forensic Psychologist (Dr Branton), who was to determine his risk and impact on Marta Desoto’s children. Wideman was not allowed any communication with stepchildren while incarcerated as long as they remained minors, as he was deemed unsuitable for any type of contact, even third-party communications with the children.
· The Clemency Board, in Sept 2016, reported Wideman had been put on intensive acute mental health watch or suicide/homicidal watch approximately 10 times, usually after disappointing news, while he has been incarcerated. This would conclude he was not safe to be around himself or other people for significant portions of time.
· In 2017 (around age 47), after he was rearrested and back in prison, the Dept of Corrections recorded his phone calls during his incarceration, and he was heard admitting to daily anger with “tightness in his chest”, although Wideman denies any anger issues. Wideman and his wife, Marta Desoto, described the board members as all “idiots” during this phone call.
· On 4/26/2018 (around age 48), Wideman was cited for “Misuse of the telephone” by which he was guilty of using another inmate’s calling info to avoid his conversations being monitored. The wife of the inmate who conspired with Wideman in this illegal behavior attended a 2016 clemency hearing as an advocate for Wideman.
· In 2019 (around age 49), Wideman was moved from Florence to Tucson for misconduct with correction officer staff. Wideman apparently developed a relationship with a female correction officer that was not professional in nature and the transfer was ordered for security reasons.
· Prior to the second Revocation hearing in 2020, the DOC made a request to allow Dr. Joseph Penn to testify at the hearing to provide clarity on an actual diagnosis and to show that Wideman was about to lapse into criminal ways which even further justified the actions of the Clemency Board. That request included the following, describing his proposed testimony: “Dr. Penn, who is a Board-certified forensic psychiatrist and one of the top forensic psychiatrists in the country in the field of evaluating and treating offenders such as Mr. Wideman, will provide scientific support for Ms. Dorman's (Wideman’s PO’s supervisor) testimony. Specifically, he will explain to the hearing officer the reasons why, from a psychiatric perspective, Mr. Wideman's 2017 behavior meant he was probably about to lapse into criminal ways, given his "decades old history," as referenced in Ms. Garin's letter, of the dangerous and manipulative behaviors described in ADC's List of Witnesses. Dr. Penn will provide vital testimony as to the likelihood that Mr. Wideman was or was about to lapse into criminal ways in light of the fact that his psychiatric conditions which led to the murder of Eric Kane are continuing, long-standing and permanent, and require comprehensive psychological testing, intensive lifelong treatment, including therapy, medication and observation. He will provide testimony that Mr. Wideman's propensity for violence, both currently and at the time of his arrest, are likely high, given his history and that Mr. Wideman has been refusing and/or avoiding mental health treatment and evaluation for the last several years, such that his refusal to schedule an appointment with Dr. McCain and general refusal to participate in comprehensive mental health treatment could lead a reasonable person to determine that Mr. Wideman was probably about to lapse into criminal ways.
Given the specificity of Dr. Penn’s proposed testimony, and the fact that he never had an opportunity to meet with or examine Jacob Wideman, one can only assume that he was given access to all of Wideman’s DOC medical and mental health records. It is clear that the Board should demand access to these same records, so that they can fully understand the truth regarding Wideman’s mental state.