Irene Gakwa.
The boyfriend of Wyoming nursing studentIrene Gakwawill spend up to the next six years in prison and will have to pay $13,200 in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to stealing her money, using her credit cards and deleting her email account after she went missing in 2022.
On Wednesday, Campbell County District Court Judge James M. “Mike” Causey sentenced Nathan Hightman, 39, of Gillette, to three- to six-year prison sentences for felony theft and unlawful use of a credit card convictions at his sentencing hearing, theGillette News Recordreports.
The sentences will run concurrently with a suspended two- to three-year sentence for crimes against intellectual property, theGilletteNews Recordreports.
In lieu of that sentence, the judge sentenced Hightman to three years of supervised probation after he is released from prison, according to the outlet.
Nathan Hightman.Campbell Country Sheriff’s Office
The judge also ordered Hightman to pay $13,200 in fines, fees and restitution.
Hightman must pay fines of $2,000 for each of the three convictions, the newspaper reported, and the judge suspended one of the fines.
He also ordered Hightman to pay $3,666.46 in restitution for the money he stole from Gakwa’s checking account and $3,230.65 for what he charged on her credit cards, according toGilletteNews Record.
Hightman was ordered to pay $825 in other fees and $1,500 for the cost of his public defender.
The sentencing comes just three months after Hightman pleaded guilty to three of the five felonies he was accused of — one count each of theft, unlawful use of a credit card and crimes against intellectual property.
Hightman entered the plea in March, less than a week before his 10-day trial was expected to begin on April 3. In exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop two of the related charges.
Gakwa’s two brothers, who live in the U.S., and her parents, who live in her native Kenya, are relieved that Hightman is heading to prison.
“We are happy with the outcome of the current charges,” Gakwa’s brother, Kennedy Wainaina tells PEOPLE exclusively. “However we are still wondering what happened to our sister, Irene.”
Gakwa was 32 when she vanished in Feb. 2022 while she was living with Hightman in Gillette. The last time her family heard from her was on Feb. 24, 2022, when she spoke to her parents in Kenya in a video call on WhatsApp.
Hightman told police that one night in 2022, the woman known to be a shy homebody packed up her belongings, got into an SUV and left the home they shared.
He said he had no idea where she was.
After his arrest on May 11, 2022, Hightman initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony theft, two counts of crimes against intellectual property and one count of unlawful use of a credit card, according to the court clerk.
He was accused of stealing nearly $3,700 from Gakwa’s checking account, charging $604.65 on her Visa card and maxing out her Capital One card in the amount of $3,230.65, court records show, theGillette News Recordreports.He emptied her bank account and used her credit cards after Gakwa, went missing. He told police he took her money so she would contact him when she ran out of money.
He remains a “person of interest” in her missing person case but has not been charged in connection with her disappearance.
Devastated Family Seeks Answers
With each day that passes, Gakwa’s family loses hope that she will ever be found alive.
Gakwa moved to Boise in 2019 from her native Kenya to study nursing. She spent a lot of time with her older brothers who had come to the U.S. before she did — Wainaina, 44, and Chris Gakwa, 38 — as well as her nieces and nephews.
In 2020, she began dating Hightman after meeting him online on a Craigslist forum, according to her family.
“He seemed quiet,” Wainaina told PEOPLE previously. “Didn’t say much. He told me he doesn’t really have any friends.”
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As Hightman and Gakwa’s relationship grew more serious, the two began showing up less and less to family functions.
Alleging that Hightman was “controlling,” Kennedy says, “He started isolating us from our sister.”
Unbeknownst to Kennedy and his brother, in July 2021 Hightman and Gakwa up and moved from Boise to Gillette without telling them.
But she still spoke regularly to her parents in Kenya — until their last video call with them on Feb. 24, 2022.
They grew worried when they were unable to reach her on WhatsApp, but began receiving odd text messages from her that didn’t sound like her at all.
After weeks passed with no word from his sister, Wainaina called the police that March and asked them to check on her.
What they learned from police was disturbing.
“Her boyfriend told them Irene took a couple of trash bags with her, got into a dark SUV and left,” Wainaina told PEOPLE.
Shortly after, they realized that her social media accounts had been mysteriously deleted. “That didn’t sound like Irene,” says Kennedy.
“All of us were just freaking out.”
Ina May 22, 2022, statement, Gillette police said, “Information obtained through investigation suggests Irene went missing under suspicious circumstances.”
Detectives, the statement continued, “are asking the public for any information concerning a gray or silver-colored Subaru Crosstrek with Idaho license plates which may have been seen trespassing on private property or appearing out of place in rural areas of Campbell County between February 24, 2022 and March 20, 2022.
“The Gillette Police Department is also requesting information regarding the possibility of a 55-gallon metal drum, which may have been burned and/or abandoned within the county.”
AGoFundMehas been set up for a reward leading to information about Irene’s whereabouts.
The Facebook pageFind Irene Gakwaprovides updates on her case.
Prosecutor Nathan Henkes had no comment. Hightman’s attorney, Dallas Lamb, was unable to be reached for comment.
Anyone with information related to Gakwa’s disappearance is asked to contact the Gillette Police Department at 307-682-5155.
source: people.com
