Texas cannibal serial killer Jason Thornburg has had his ticket punched: Death Row.
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Thornburg, 44, was convicted of murdering three people in a twisted “human sacrifice” that involved dismemberment and incinerating their bodies.
The monster admitted to eating the heart of one of his victims. He also confessed to previously murdering his ex-girlfriend and her roommate.
“He is a psychopath. He is evil,” prosecutor Amy Allin told jurors.
Thornburg was sentenced to die late Wednesday in Fort Worth, Texas. The death sentence ends an odyssey of violence and cruelty that ultimately claimed the lives of five people.
On Sept. 22, 2021, firefighters responded to a dumpster fire in Fort Worth. Once it was extinguished, they discovered human body parts inside. The bodies were badly burned and had been dismembered. Some of the body parts were missing as well, cops said.
Thornburg was linked to the grisly murders after CCTV footage captured him outside a low-rent motel. He was also spotted on video near the dumpster.
The victims were identified: David Lueras, 42, Lauren Phillips, 34, and Maricruz Mathis, 33.
According to cops, the heinous killer told them he dissected and dismembered his victims and stored them in his motel room before setting them ablaze.
He told shocked detectives that he decided Lueras, who was his roommate, “needed to be sacrificed.” He cut his throat and then chopped Lueras into pieces in the bathtub, then kept the remains in trash bags for a number of days.
Thornburg said he knew his female victims “casually.” The killer concluded that they too needed to be sacrificed. He slit one of the women’s throats and put her body parts in a storage bin.
Two days later, the second female victim arrived at the hotel room where she was stabbed and strangled. Her remains also went into a storage bin.
Driving Thornburg’s bloodlust was his self-proclaimed in-depth knowledge of the Bible leading to his being called to commit the evil butchery.
As investigators questioned Thornburg, he also confessed to murdering his ex-girlfriend Tanya Begay, 36, and her friend Mark Jewell, 61, in Arizona in 2017.
Thornburg said he slit Begay’s throat and then uncapped a gas line, lighting a candle in the room and watching the explosion from afar.
One Tarrant County judge believed there was reasonable evidence to suggest that Thornberg was suffering from severe mental illness. And at his trial, his defence team argued he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
But the jury did not buy it.
Norma Harris’ sister Maricruz Mathis was among those murdered. She described her sister as beautiful, strong and outgoing.
“Your actions have caused a lot of pain,” Harris told Thornburg. “The worst part of all this is that even after we do get justice, we will still be missing our loved ones.”
A few years and rescheduling of court dates later, Thornburg’s trial began in November.
During the trial, Thornburg admitted he ate part of Lueras’ heart before storing his remains.