10 years in prison for Northfield man in disabled man attack

Published 2:10 pm Saturday, January 9, 2010

The last of five defendants is now sentenced for the 2008 kidnapping and beating of a mentally disabled man in Dakota County.

Judge Tim Wermager sentenced 22-year-old Jonathan Diepold to 10 years in prison Friday. That’s a stiffer sentence than recommended by Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines.

Diepold waived his right to a jury trial and was found guilty by the judge last October of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, assault, false imprisonment and theft.

Email newsletter signup

Diepold and four others were charged in the beating of 24-year-old Justin Hamilton. Hamilton was twice lured from his home, taken to a rural area and tortured for hours.

Three other men and a teenage girl pleaded guilty. The girl had said that Hamilton had assaulted her, but prosecutors said she made that up.