GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The man who viewed images in the Kent County jail of the teenager he sexually abused and the woman who showed him those images are in state prisons.
Kari Santizo was sentenced Jan. 25 to between nine and 30 years in prison for first-degree criminal sexual conduct and between four and 20 years for child sexually abusive activity. She was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervision and ordered to pay a couple thousand dollars in fines and fees.
According to court documents, Santizo had recorded images and video of a teenager she and her former boyfriend, Matthew Thomas Cook, had previously abused. During a video visitation, Santizo, who was described in court documents as Cook’s former girlfriend, allegedly held her phone up to the screen, allowing him to see recorded images and video.
Santizo, 44, pleaded guilty to the charges in November. Under the terms of a plea agreement, three other similar counts were dismissed.
Cook, 43, pleaded guilty to CSC and sexually abusive material charges in October and was sentenced Dec. 19.
In 2007, he was convicted of asking a sex worker in Grand Rapids to help him lure, kidnap and rape a young girl; he was out on parole in 2021 on that case when a Grand Rapids police officer found child porn on his phone. That’s what landed him in the Kent County jail.
Michigan Department of Corrections records show he is now serving four decades-long prison sentences for the CSC and child porn charges and up to life on the 2007 case. If granted parole, the earliest he could be released is December 2059, when he would be 80 years old.