Left inset: Isaiah Sadowski (YouTube). Right inset: Barbara Patterson (Amos Family Funeral Home). Background: The Kansas crash scene where Barbara Patterson was killed in a collision caused by Isaiah Sadowski (KSHB).
A Kansas man has been found guilty of murder after prosecutors said he drunkenly slammed into a 75-year-old motorist while driving at more than 130 mph — then later appeared on YouTube, where he spoke casually about leaving the country and cast himself as another victim of the tragedy.
Isaiah Sadowski, who was 20 years old when the wreck happened, killed Barbara Patterson in December 2021. Last week, a Johnson County jury convicted him of second-degree murder following his 2022 not guilty plea, according to the Johnson County District Attorney”s Office.
In a YouTube interview, Sadowski acknowledged that he left the United States after the deadly crash, saying the events unfolded after he became distraught over allegations that his fiancee had been “cheating” on him.
“I had just found out that my fiancee was cheating on me over Christmas,” Sadowski claimed in a June 2024 interview with YouTuber Jesse Crosson, who goes by the handle @second_chancer.
“I was still reeling from finding out that I was being cheated on,” Sadowski said. “I was 20 years old at the time. As a 20-year-old, you’re cheated on by a girl that you’re engaged to and it’s the end of the world, right? The world’s crashing down on you. This is the end of it all. So that night I went, I drank. … and I was involved in a car accident and I was subsequently charged with murder.”
Sadowski was eventually arrested in Colima, Mexico, during a coordinated effort by the U.S. Marshals Service and Mexican authorities, The Kansas City Star reported.
After Patterson’s son brought a wrongful death case in Jackson County Circuit Court, Sadowski agreed to settle for $1.5 million, according to The Star. Court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show the June 2022 payout was made through an insurance policy Sadowski had at the time.
“I believe that both cars caused the car accident,” Sadowski told Crosson in the June 2024 YouTube interview, which was verified and first reported by The Star.
“Both cars ran a light,” Sadowski alleged.
“Okay, but if one light is green, one light is red, I assume somebody got T-boned?” Crosson replied. To which Sadowski claimed, “The light that the other person was coming from was amber, amber, amber — just turned red— and then my light was solid red, but I was braking leading up to it. And so we both ran a red light.”
Throughout his interview with Crosson, Sadowski appeared calm and relaxed, even smiling at times while speaking openly about what happened — and about his troubles with finding a lawyer to represent him.
“I am no longer in America,” Sadowski admitted. “I’m trying to figure out what the next steps are here because there was no legal path forward. I had this defense attorney, he’s a nationally reclaimed defense attorney, 300-plus five-star reviews on Google … And when I first retained him, he said, ‘Listen, here’s the game plan.’ I’d seen the case file. He met my parents. He told my parents the game plan, and it sounded really, really good. And then two months later, he just completely gave up on me.”
Crosson flat-out asked Sadowski at one point whether he was in compliance with the court’s orders, to which he admitted he was not.
“Defendant, by his own public admission, has intentionally left the United States,” one of Sadowski’s three defense attorneys, Gregory Watt, wrote in an April 2024 court filing, as he reportedly asked to withdraw from representing him, according to The Star.
“Defendant has both violated the terms of his bond and violated the terms of the attorney/client contract with our office,” Watt alleged.
Sadowski told Crosson that “the only chance that I even really see” when it comes to his case is “a new district attorney coming in and saying, ‘Hey, this doesn’t seem right. Now we’ve got this kid in Belize, and he’s going on these podcasts and he’s talking to different people, and it’s not the best look for us. Let’s just work something out while you’re there.'”
Sadowski claimed he was being “charged and prosecuted for a crime that I did not commit” and he insisted the evidence supports that.
“And you might say, ‘Well then just take it to trial and let the justice system do what the justice system does,'” Sadowski told Crosson. “But unfortunately, I’m $300,000 into this. I’ve had three defense attorneys that have given up on me.”
The Star reported that after Sadowski was initially arrested for the crash, a judge ordered him released without having to wear an ankle monitoring device.
A family member of Patterson’s who asked to remain anonymous told the local newspaper, “From the day we learned that the accused had fled the jurisdiction it has been an exercise in trying to believe in the idea of Karma, and what goes around comes around and that the accused was in some way already living in a self imposed prison of anxious fear and paranoia of looking over his (shoulder) wondering if he was going to be caught, however, based on what little I know about the accused, he probably didn’t give two (expletive), and wasn’t worried at all.”
A sentencing date has not been set yet, per the DA’s office.
