On the run from murder charge for months, Overland Park man captured in Mexico
On the run from a Johnson County murder charge last year, Isaiah Sadowski mulled what was next, his future uncertain.
In an interview posted on YouTube in June 2024, the Overland Park man wondered what a potential plea deal might look like. At one point, he casually suggested he was in Central America. Should he get a new attorney? Could he return?
Sadowski was charged with second-degree murder following a fatal crash in Overland Park in December 2021 in which investigators alleged the then-20-year-old was driving drunk and speeding — going more than 130 mph —moments before his car slammed into another vehicle at the intersection of Quivira Road and West 127th Street.
The crash killed the other driver, 75-year-old Barbara Patterson, also of Overland Park.
The interview with Sadowski appeared on the Second Chancer YouTube channel, whose host, Jesse Crosson, speaks about the criminal justice system and a stint he served in prison. The video drew about 2,000 views and a swath of critical feedback in the comments section.
“To be clear,” Crosson said, mid-conversation, “you are not in compliance with the court’s orders, right?”
“Completely,” said Sadowski, grinning briefly, his hair and beard unkempt. “I am no longer in America, I am trying to figure out what the next steps are here, because there was no legal path forward.”
More than a year later, it appears the path forward for Sadowski will include a return to Kansas to face prosecution.
A family member of Patterson’s, who asked not to be named in this story, told The Star in a message that Sadowski was arrested Aug. 20 in a joint operation involving the U.S. Marshal’s Service and Mexican officials in Colima, Mexico. The family member said they were notified by the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office after Sadowski was in custody.
Jail records for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston, Texas, show Sadowski was booked into jail there the following day. Sadowski, who is being held without bond, waived his extradition rights to be returned to Kansas, according to court documents filed in Harris County.
It’s unclear when he will be back in Johnson County. A filing in Harris County recorded that he would be extradited and that an official with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed warrants for his arrest. A hearing in Harris County is scheduled for Sept. 8.
Isaiah Sadowski’s father, Paul Sadowski, told The Star at his Overland Park home on Thursday he believed his son would be back in the area soon but declined to comment further.
A spokeswoman for the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Disappeared
As criminal proceedings churned ahead in the months following the fatal crash, Sadowski consented to a $1.5 million civil settlement with Patterson’s son, paid out of an insurance policy Sadowski held. In his criminal case, he went through two attorneys and hired a third. In 2022, prosecutors filed a misdemeanor charge against him for an alleged violation of a protection order.
Then, while out of jail on $150,000 bond for the murder charge last year, he disappeared.
“Defendant, by his own public admission, has intentionally left the United States,” Sadowski’s third defense attorney, Gregory Watt, wrote in an April 2024 court filing, asking to withdraw from representing the man. “Defendant has both violated the terms of his bond and violated the terms of the attorney/client contract with our office.”
Watt didn’t respond to a request for comment.
After Sadowski failed to show up for court, warrants were issued for his arrest, and a trial set for April last year was canceled. Patterson’s loved ones tried to move forward without a resolution.
Frustration
In a winding account in the interview on YouTube and on a website he launched last year that is no longer active, Sadowski attempted to paint a sympathetic picture of himself and cast blame on Patterson.
He had found out he was cheated on over Christmas, just before the fatal crash. He was drinking, he admitted. He talked of his upbringing.
Prosecutors wanted a long prison sentence and wouldn’t budge, he said. He hoped to avoid 20 years in prison. Four years locked up, though, would work for him. He would come back for four years.
“The only chance that I even really see,” he said in the interview, “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.’”
The family member who contacted The Star expressed frustration that Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan had allowed an ankle monitoring device to be removed from Sadowski’s release conditions before he fled.
Wrote the family member: “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.”
‘She was a giver’
As a youth, Patterson, a Shawnee Mission West High School graduate, ran hurdles and enjoyed the new musical sounds of the British invasion, her obituary said. She worked for nearly 40 years at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, mostly in the hospital’s emergency department.
She enjoyed the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs, loved bluegrass, the Beatles, birdwatching and books and supported family members in difficult moments. She had her own tough moments, and those armed her with advice for others that was rooted in empathy and patience, a family member said.
She wasn’t wealthy but made donations to causes she believed in, like the American Civil Liberties Union, National Public Radio and to leukemia and bird conservation groups.
“She was a giver,” her obituary said. “She wanted you to feel special, supported, loved and safe.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM.
