Wisconsin man sentenced for locking woman in wooden box

WAUSAU — A judge sentenced a Wisconsin man on Tuesday to 13 years in prison for locking a woman inside a wooden box in his basement and sexually assaulting her.

Allen Jamroz, 56, of Mosinee also was sentenced to seven years of extended supervision for second-degree sexual assault and false imprisonment. As part of a plea deal, charges of kidnapping and battery were dismissed but considered during sentencing, USA Today Network-Wisconsin reported.

In court, the 20-year-old woman said she is "scared to have a relationship with anybody" after the December 2016 assault.

"I have so many triggers now," the woman told Marathon County Judge Greg Strasser. She said she worries about whether she will be able to trust any man enough to have a normal relationship.

Authorities say the woman went to Jamroz's home to visit his granddaughter, but the granddaughter wasn't there. Jamroz asked the woman for help on a remodeling project in his basement, and then used a homemade stun gun on her, forced her into the box and screwed it shut. She was able to escape hours later.

Jamroz apologized at the sentencing.

"If I could take this back, I would," he said.

Jamroz has been a productive member of his community his entire life, said his attorney, Suzanne O'Neill. He worked for the Chicago Department of Sanitation before getting divorced and moving with his two children to Mosinee, about 175 miles (282 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee.

The judge said he looked at the picture of the box and saw the amount of work that went into cutting all the boards for it and joining them together.

"It's a coffin. That's what it is — it's a coffin," Strasser said.

Strasser ordered Jamroz to undergo counseling and to pay restitution for the woman's counseling.