A jury sentenced 44-year-old Jason Thornburg to death. gruesome murder The bodies of three people found burned in a trash can in 2021.
Thornburgh, who was sentenced to death in November, was found guilty Wednesday of a murder he described as a “human sacrifice to God.”
“He's a psychopath. He's a bad guy. He's the type of evil that we would like to believe does not exist in our community.”
The bodies of David Ruelas, Lauren Phillips and Maricruz Mathis were found “heavily dismembered” in a dumpster in Fort Worth. Police quickly identified one of the bodies, but it took time to identify the other two due to the condition of the bodies.
In a conversation with police, Thornburgh confessed to the murder and gave gruesome details about what he had done to his victims. He said he had studied the Bible and the sacrifice was done for religious reasons.
He said he rented rooms at the Mid-City Inn in Euless and brought the victims to their rooms on separate occasions. He slit the throats of two of his victims and strangled the third. He admitted to sexually assaulting the victim's corpse and mutilating another person's genitals. He also said he ate part of the victim's heart.
Thornburgh said he dismembered the body in the bathtub in his room and hid the body under his bed.
Thornburgh said he threw the body in a trash can and set it on fire, then cleaned the plastic pail he used in the insidious crime and returned it to the store where he had bought it.
He then confessed to two other murders.
Thornburgh said he was responsible for the suspicious death of his roommate, Mark Jewell, 61. Firefighters found Jewell's body after her home exploded in May 2021.
He also said he killed his then-girlfriend Tanya Begay in Arizona in 2017. Her body has never been found.
Thornburgh's lawyers argued that the execution was unjust, arguing that Thornburgh was suffering from psychotic delusions at the time of the killing.
“You have to decide as a jury, would you execute a psychotic person when he did something? You have to ask yourself, would you execute someone who is delusional? That's what we Is that what a civilized society should look like? Would we do that? Executing someone whose mother left them vulnerable to all the evils of our society is what we can do as a civilized society. '' one lawyer argued.
Prosecutors told the jury he was too dangerous to be kept alive.
“He is a psychopath. He is evil. He is the type of evil that we would like to believe does not exist in our community. We are raising our children in a world where people like Jason Thornburgh exist. I would like to believe that there is no such thing,” the prosecutor said. “We would like to believe that we live in a world where the Bible is not a weapon and where our weaknesses do not make us prey to serial killers. But if we live in a world where Jason Thornburgh It is said that as long as we live, evil will continue to exist.
The jury deliberated for just five hours. Mr. Thornburgh showed no reaction after reading the text.
Do you like Blaze News? Avoid censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. Please register here!
