A Texas man who lured three people to a motel room and then killed and dismembered them because he believed he was “being called to commit sacrifices,” was sentenced to death on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
The man, Jason Alan Thornburg, 44, carried out the brutal killings — and ate part of the heart of one of his victims — at the Mid City Inn in Euless, Texas, in September 2021, prosecutors said. He was convicted last month of capital murder after a Tarrant County jury rejected pleas by his lawyers who had asked that he be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors described Mr. Thornburg as methodical and sadistic. They said he was often seen sitting in a chair outside his motel room, reading the Bible, and that he used his knowledge of Scripture to lure his victims into his room, where he killed them over a seven-day period.
After dismembering the bodies, Mr. Thornburg disposed of the remains in a dumpster and set fire to it before driving away, prosecutors said. He was arrested days later after the police obtained video footage that had recorded his Jeep Grand Cherokee near the dumpster, prosecutors said.
During an interview with homicide detectives, Mr. Thornburg “described having an in-depth knowledge of the Bible and believed that he was being called to commit sacrifices,” according to an arrest warrant.
“He knows Scripture well,” Amy Allin, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s his weapon of choice. He uses it to get vulnerable people to lower their guard.”
A manager at the Mid City Inn, Kanti Gandhi, told The New York Times in 2021 that Mr. Thornburg had played loud music in his room during the week that, the police said, he was killing his victims.
“It was so loud, people were disturbed upstairs and next door,” he said. “Mostly some church music, probably.”
Prosecutors identified Mr. Thornburg’s victims as David Lueras, 42; Maricruz Mathis, 33; and Lauren Phillips, 34.
One of Mr. Thornburg’s lawyers, J. Warren St. John, said the defense team had presented testimony from expert witnesses who said that Mr. Thornburg had schizophrenia and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
But he said the defense could not persuade the jury, given Mr. Thornburg’s own statements confessing to the killings, and the brutal nature of the crimes.
“We’re disappointed,” Mr. St. John said, adding that under Texas law, Mr. Thornburg’s death sentence would automatically be appealed.
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