By Brandi Makuski

It’s the second delay in sentencing for Jason Hyatt- but an unavoidable one given the poor communication between him and his lawyer, a judge said on Thursday.

Hyatt, 35, was arrested in October of 2013 after allegedly beating his girlfriend with a baseball bat, then attempting to drug her before holding her captive over a course of about seven hours in their Plover home.

Jennifer Lin Nilsen said Hyatt beat her almost to death but says she still remembers most of the night’s highly-publicized events, all of which have been verified with the criminal complaint. Court records indicated Hyatt struck Nilsen multiple times with the bat, held her captive by tying her to a towel bar in the bathroom, and later to a bed, then force-fed her sleeping pills, though she was able to spit them out. He also told her she wouldn’t leave the house alive.

“I remember trying to crawl away, but he just kept swinging,” Nilsen told the City Times last October. “I made it to the bathroom, thinking I could close the door and lock him out until he calmed down, but he was too close to me.”

Nilsen expressed her frustration with the case last year, pointing out the plea deal Hyatt was offered meant she would never get to testify in open court.

“I’m so angry I never got to tell my story,” she said last year.

Hyatt pleaded no contest last October to charges of bail-jumping, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and false imprisonment.

The other charges against him- attempted first-degree intentional homicide, aggravated battery and intimidating a victim- were dropped as a part of his deal.

Nilsen said she wonders what he future will be, but she’s ready to start moving on. (City Times photo)

Nilsen said she’s trying to be patient for a conclusion to the case.

“Even though the outcome I wanted wasn’t achieved today…I am very pleased with the compassion and support that I was shown by the D.A., the victim witness coordinator, the law enforcement in the court room and the judge in particular,” Nilsen said in a statement on Thursday. “This case will go on for a few more months but…justice will be served in the right way, when the time does come.

Hyatt returns to court for sentencing on April 8.