Mixed martial artist War Machine, formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, has been sentenced to life in prison. That being said, it would appear that a GoFundMe has been set up in dedication to accruing money for the fighter to make an appeal.
War Machine is a former Bellator MMA competitor, having also been a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra during his career. However, the fighter has since been sentenced to prison.
Back in 2014, War Machine allegedly assaulted former girlfriend Christy Mack. The former pornographic actress was left greatly injured from the incident, leading to a lengthy trial on the matter.
The fighter was ultimately convicted of 29 felony counts concerning the assault of Christy Mack and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 36 years. Now one of the fighter’s interested party’s has decided to create a GoFundMe dedicated to helping the fighter get an appeal for the sentence.
User Shannah L has created the crowdsourcing account in hopes of raising $60,000 for the former fighter. Here is Shannah L’s statement from the account below:
“Jon deserves the proper representation he deserves and without a strong defense team this is impossible for him to achieve. Please help Jon raise the funds for a strong defense team so he can see the outside world again. He has changed in tremendous ways and doesn’t deserve this life sentence they’ve thrown at him. He is a beautiful person inside and out and has opened his heart to God. He has spent his years incarcerated looking for opportunities to use his life experiences, successes and shortfalls to inspire change in fellow inmates and create deep bonds with his pen pals.
“Before Jon was ‘War Machine’ he was Jonathan Koppenhaver. Just an everyday guy with extraordinary charisma.
“With a rough life as a young kid and man he followed his own past to escape the troubles at home. Unfortunately when the road divided and left with a choice he went left instead of right. Nobody could hate war machine, the empty man before August 8th more than the man himself. Off all his meds, camera’s no longer flashing, longtime friends lost, and left with nothing more than his own demons Jon has been forced to self reflect.
“He started at a cement cell floor bottom and began to find his way back to the road that he led himself to destruction. Not everything about Jon has changed. His dimpled smile, stubborn ideas, charisma, and deep love for those close to him he has learned to build on.
“He has a deep desire to impact everyone who reaches out to him, and show them God’s grace, love and forgiveness.
“Jon inspires me everyday to better myself and have a deep love for God, his changes are amazing.”
