March 28, 2024

Man gets life for girlfriend kidnapping, attack

BURLINGTON— A Burlington man accused of refusing to let his 16-year-old girlfriend leave then using a machete and skateboard to attack her has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, a required sentence in Iowa for first-degree kidnapping. Dakota Poland, 21, was sentenced Friday he repeatedly interrupted attorneys. When allowed to speak he told prosecutors that what they’d done to him would “be on your shoulders for the rest of your life.”

Prosecutors say Poland attacked the girl March 10 when she was moving out of his parents’ home, where she often stayed. Court records say he wouldn’t let her leave and attacked her. Poland’s mother intervened, and his father took the girl to a hospital.

A jury convicted him in November.