A Tarrant County jury is deliberating the fate of Jason Thornburg, a Euless man who was convicted on Wednesday of murdering three people, dismembering their bodies, and burning their remains in a dumpster in Fort Worth in September 2021.
During the trial, two psychologists testified that Thornburg said he drank the blood of his victims, sexually molested the corpse of one victim, and ate a bite of another victim’s heart before putting it back in his chest.
With the trial entering the sentencing phase following his conviction on November 20, Thornburg’s attorneys are now attempting to persuade the jury to spare his life. His defense team claims that Thornburg was insane at the time of the murders and suffered from a severe mental disease, impairing his thought process during the crimes, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
The gruesome details of the case have shocked the DFW area, with Thornburg admitting to investigators that he committed the killings as part of what he referred to as “ritualistic sacrifices.”
The victims’ families, who have been present throughout the trial, are unable to speak publicly about the case until the sentencing phase is complete.
Prosecutors presented evidence of Thornburg’s previous alleged crimes during the trial, including the murder of his roommate in May 2021 and his girlfriend in Arizona in 2017. These past crimes were brought up once again in court on Thursday afternoon, with two Fort Worth investigators testifying about Thornburg’s dark confessions to those murders.
The Tarrant County jury must decide whether Thornburg will ultimately face the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Thornburg is currently being held at the Tarrant County Corrections Center.