Photo: District Court PD
Pennsylvania jurors took 12 hours to sentence Jacob Sullivan to death for torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering his girlfriend’s adopted teenage daughter in 2016.
PEOPLE confirms with Bucks County court officials the verdict was delivered Thursday morning.
The Morning Callreportsthat Judge Diane Gibbons did not mince words Thursday as she sentenced Sullivan to death, telling him, “You have no soul.”
She added, “I have never said that to another human being in my life, and I hope to not say it again.”
Sullivan reportedly showed no emotion as he learned his fate.
The paper reports the judge also thanked the jury for their service; one of the jurors was reportedly crying as the judge spoke.
“The butchery in this case was beyond my ability to describe,” Gibbons said. “To live through it vicariously through the photos and the tapes and the recordings … must have taken a toll.”
According to prosecutors, Sullivan killed Grace during the summer of 2016 as her mother, Sara Packer, watched.
Sullivan put Grace in a chokehold and suffocated her, Packer testified last week. He then preserved Grace’s remains in cat litter for three months before dismembering her body and dumping it in a remote area of Pennsylvania.
The initial charging documents describe the torture and murder of Grace as part of an alleged “rape-murder fantasy” the Sullivan and Packer acted out together.
Packer agreed to testify against Sullivanas part of a deal with prosecutors.The Philadelphia Inquirerreportsshe’ll receive a life sentence once she pleads guilty, which is expected to happen as early as Friday, court officials confirmed.
In her testimony, she described Grace as “a nonentity” and, without showing emotion, said she wanted the girl to go away but that she “didn’t have to die,” the station reports. “The reality of what he had done set in and there was no going back. So, he decided it was time for her to die…I got wrapped up in Jake’s fantasy, and I didn’t think I could tell him no without losing him.”
Sara Packer and Jacob Sullivan.AP/REX/Shutterstock (2)
The night before the killing, the couple drove Grace to a home in Quakertown,according to WCAU.
Sullivan punched Grace in the face and raped her while Packer watched. According to Packer, the girl looked to her mom for help, but rather than come to her aid, she told Grace, “I can’t help you anymore. This is now your life.”
After the sexual assault, Grace was drugged and bound with zip ties. The couple placed a ball gag in her mouth before leaving her in an attic closet to die in the summer heat.
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Packer, the station reports, testified Wednesday the couple returned the next day to find Grace still alive — with the zip ties snapped.
Packer told the packed courtroom Sullivan grabbed Grace from behind, and strangled her, saying, “Just go, honey, just go.”
Pennsylvania last executed a prisoner in 1999. In 2015, a moratorium on executions was imposed.
On Thursday, District Attorney Matt Weintraub commented on the outcome.
“You could not write a horror movie script worse than what happened to Grace Packer,” he said, according to theThe Morning Call. “[Sullivan] got what he deserved plain and simple. Death is the appropriate sentence for this man.”
source: people.com
