Jason Thornburg, who killed three individuals by dismembering their bodies and then burning them inside a dumpster in Fort Worth, was given a death sentence.
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A Tarrant County jury sentenced convicted killer Jason Thornburg to death.
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Over the course of 7 days, Thornburg killed 3 people in Euless in 2021.
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He dismembered the bodies, put the body parts in bins, and set them on fire inside a Fort Worth dumpster.
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Thornburg cleaned and returned the bins to the store he bought them from.
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A Tarrant County jury sentenced convicted killer Jason Thornburg to death.
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Over the course of 7 days, Thornburg killed 3 people in Euless in 2021.
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He dismembered the bodies, put the body parts in bins, and set them on fire inside a Fort Worth dumpster.
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Thornburg cleaned and returned the bins to the store he bought them from.
Texas’s Fort WorthAfter a 44-year-old man was found guilty of the horrific killings of three individuals and the burning of their remains in 2021, a Tarrant County jury opted to sentence him to death. New details on the events that transpired at the Euless motel over the seven days preceding the Fort Worth dumpster fire were made public throughout the trial, which lasted for many weeks.
The jury found Thornburg to be a future danger based on the facts provided during the trial, and he was given the death penalty.
Details Revealed During Trial
Jason Thurnburg stated in September 2021 that Lauren Phillips, 34, Maricruz Mathis, 33, and David Lueras, 42, had to be sacrificed for religious reasons.
Thornburg brought them all into the room he was renting, one by one, over the course of seven days at the Mid City Inn in Euless. He cut Mathis and Lueras’s throats. He sexually abused Phillips’ corpse and strangled her. He severed David’s penis and ate a portion of his heart.
A guy has been taken into custody by Fort Worth police in connection with the deaths of three persons discovered in a flaming garbage.
He dismembered them in the motel bathtub after they passed away and put their remains in garbage bags beneath his bed.
Thornburg transported their bodily parts, which were now in plastic storage tubs, to a dumpster on Bonnie Drive in Fort Worth early on September 22, 2021. Thornburg burned the remains after placing them all in the dumpster and left.
He returned the tubs to the store where they were purchased after cleaning them out.
After firefighters arrived and put out the dumpster fire, authorities used a camera that showed Thornburg’s Jeep Grand Cherokee in the vicinity at the time of the dumpster fire to identify him as the one who placed the remains inside and set them on fire.
In September 2021, Jason Thornburg killed, mutilated, and consumed parts of three individuals at the Mid City Inn in Euless.
Thornburg allegedly admitted to police that he killed his girlfriend Tanya Begay in Arizona in 2017 and his roommate in May 2021 during a suspected home explosion when he was taken into custody for the 2021 motel killings.
Thornburg was charged with the murder of Mark Jewell, his 61-year-old roommate. Following a gas explosion at their Fort Worth home in May 2021, Jewell’s body was discovered by firefighters.
According to reports, Thornburg admitted to investigators that he killed his roommate in May 2021 during a suspected Fort Worth home explosion.
March 2017 was when Tanya disappeared. The missing Native American woman was last seen with Jason Alan Thornburg, her ex-boyfriend. According to reports, Thornburg admitted to detectives that he had sacrificed Begay in Arizona. Tanya’s body has not been located, and the FBI still views her case as open.
Closing Statements to the Jury
The Prosecution
In the sentencing phase for convicted murderer Jason Thornburg, the prosecution makes its final arguments Wednesday morning. In November, the 44-year-old was convicted of capital murder for the 2021 murders of three individuals in Euless.
The prosecution spoke to the jury for roughly twelve minutes during their closing arguments.
“A psychopath, he is. He is malevolent. He is the kind of evil that we would like to think is nonexistent in our neighborhood. We want to think that Jason Thornburg and other similar individuals do not exist in the world in which we are raising our kids. We like to think that the Bible is not a weapon and that a serial killer won’t take advantage of your weaknesses. However, said evil will persist as long as Jason Thornburg is in the world.
During the trial, the defense claimed that Thornburg’s executive functions were ineffective, according to the prosecution. According to the lawyer, he has a 4.0 at a community college and a lengthy history of working as an electrician.
“You don’t almost get away with two murders with a lack of executive functioning.”
The defense responded, “If you need examples of his executive functioning working just fine, we’ll listen to his statement again.”
The following are the claims made by Thornburg, according to the prosecution:
I was unable to use my chainsaw since it would be too noisy and I would be apprehended. I must make use of my knife. That’s not how I can carry out the bodies. That would be too clear. I must retrieve my vehicle. I must purchase some bins and load them into my vehicle. To get away from the crime, I have to go dispose of these remains in a dumpster thirty miles away. Since I’ve done it twice before and know it works, I must burn the bodies in order to eliminate the fingerprints.
The Defense
In the punishment phase for convicted murderer Jason Thornburg, the defense started its closing arguments Wednesday morning. In November, the 44-year-old was convicted of capital murder for the 2021 murders of three individuals in Euless.
Then came closing arguments from Thornburg’s defense lawyers.
“Doomed in the womb,” they declared at the outset, meant that Jason Thorburg would never be able to “be the correct person he should be.” He wasn’t that way by choice.
The defense questioned whether Thornburg was honest with the cops. “He did, indeed. because he believed that making a terrible, immoral sacrifice was the proper thing to do. The voices that he heard are unjustified. In a sense, they are evil, yet he thought it was right. That is really strange. So strange. But you see, he thought so. He felt that his sacrifices were just, even though we as citizens know that they are wrong.
According to the second defense lawyer:
“As jurors, you must choose whether to execute a person who was insane at the time of their actions. You must consider whether we put someone who is delusional to death. Is that what a civilized society is all about? If someone’s mother left them vulnerable to all the horrors in our culture, do we put them to death? Is that what a civilized society does? Or do we do the opposite and keep them in captivity for the rest of their lives?We bury them beneath the courthouse after locking them up and discarding the key. What is the more equitable course of action? When someone stops experiencing hallucinations and responds to medication, is that more fair? And there is a significant decrease in psychosis? Is it merely to carry on with the regiment they are on, or is it to execute that individual? Their lives have been altered by it.
The Prosecution Rebuttal
Jason Thornburg’s punishment phase began Wednesday morning with the prosecution’s reply in closing arguments. In November, the 44-year-old was convicted of capital murder for the 2021 murders of three individuals in Euless.
“We don’t use words like cannibal, because it’s fun,” she remarked in response to the prosecution’s answer. He ate David’s heart, which is why we use terms like cannibal. We use the word “sadist” because (Thornburg) had sex with Lauren’s torso, not because it’s a trendy term. He also severed David’s penis. Alicia Woods was also raped by him. And as we all know, he treated Maricruz and Lauren exactly the same way he treated Alicia. He is the type of person who would have sex with Lauren while Maricruz and David’s bodies were under that bed, which is why we call him a sadist. When he sees two bodies beneath his bed, he may become aroused.
“This is not about death,” she added. This has nothing to do with hypothetical cannibals. This story concerns a man who took the man’s heart and put it in his mouth. We are here for that reason. Ladies and gentlemen, keep in mind that we discussed the ritual while we were seated here. Ladies and gentlemen, you see, the ritual is what made him do all of this. And the fire, the fire cleanses his soul. No. The fire cleanses crime scenes. And now you know that, because you know about Tanya now. You know that in 2017, not because of a ritual, not because God told him to, but because he regularly beat this woman in a domestic violence situation that resulted in him throwing a coffee pot in her eye. And when he’s about to get in trouble for that, she goes missing. And we know, now, that he burned her. He used the word cremated. Do you know how long you have to burn someone to cremate? That’s what he did. Because fire, once again, cleansed his crime scene.”
The Sentencing
Jason Thornburg, the Tarrant County man convicted of killing three people in Euless, listens to a judge read the jury’s verdict. He was given a death sentence.
It took the jury less than five hours to decide Jason Thornburg was a future danger. He didn’t show any emotion as the sentence was read. The decision was unanimous, and the jurors were polled.
The judge said, “Therefore, Jason Allen Thornburg. You have been adjudged by a jury to be guilty of capital murder. And the juror has answered the special issues making it mandatory that your punishment be death. Therefore, this court sentences you, Jason Allen Thornburgh, to death.”
The court clerk has 10 days from Dec. 4, 2024 to enter the order, setting the date for execution.
He continued, “This sentence shall be executed at any time after the hour of 6 p.m. on the day set for the execution. By intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death, and until you, Jason Allen Thornburg, are dead.”
The judgment of conviction and sentence of death are subject to automatic review by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Thornburg will stay in the custody of the state until his death sentence is carried out, which could be several years away.
Victim Impact Statements
Family members of Tarrant County convicted killer Jason Thornburg’s victims speak out in court after a jury sentenced him to death.
Families of the victims faced Thornburg in court, comparing him to Satan and calling him evil and a coward. They did not hold back when it was time for them to speak.
“I do believe, and it is my opinion, that you are a danger to society, and the only thing you do deserve is death, like our loved ones,” said Maricruz Mathis’ sister. “Jason Thornburg, I hope that you receive forgiveness in Heaven, because personally I don t think I can do it.”
Lauren Phillips’ aunt told him, “Yeah you’re a coward. You can’t face man on man and show you’re true nature. Instead, you prey on the vulnerable. Yes, you re exactly like Satan. A liar, thief and a murdering coward.”
David Lueras’ sister told the court, “He took the life of our loved one in horrific and unspeakable acts which in it of themselves are evil.”
Although Thornburg was not convicted for the death of Tanya Begay, a family member was allowed to speak during the victim impact statements. They said, “The pain of this loss is overwhelming every day because we still don t know where she is.”
David Lueras’ mother, Mary Boydstun, read a statement on behalf of all the families. She said, “Today it is right that we grieve their deaths, it is right that we demand and we receive justice. For the taking of their lives and the way their bodies were treated.”
She shared that their faith has kept them strong throughout the trial.
“Our constant source of our strength all this time has been from our Heavenly Father,” she said.
“Tanya Begay, Mark Jewell, Lauren Phillips, Maricruz Mathis and David Lueras, are prodigals have been home with Jesus, and we have all received justice on their behalf. Thank you.”
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Information in this article is from closing arguments in the punishment phase of Jason Thornburg’s trial and past FOX 4 coverage.
Information in this article is from closing arguments in the punishment phase of Jason Thornburg’s trial and past FOX 4 coverage.
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