Enrique Arochi, the North Texas man convicted of kidnapping Christina Morris, was sentenced to life in prison Friday morning. He won't be eligible for parole until he's served at least 30 years of his sentence.
Morris was 23 when she was last seen on surveillance video walking with Arochi, now 26, through a parking garage at the Shops at Legacy in Plano early in the morning of Aug. 30, 2014.
Her DNA was later found in the trunk of Arochi's car. Morris, who is presumed dead, has never been found.
After the sentence was read Friday, Collin County Judge Mark Rusch agreed to allow cameras inside the emotionally-charged courtroom to record the victim impact statements -- the time during a sentencing hearing when the victim's friends and family are allowed to speak to the defendant.
Jonni McElroy, who has spoken on many occasions since her daughter was reported missing more than two years ago, told Arochi she would attend every parole hearing he had to ensure he stayed behind bars, and would continue to fight for her daughter's memory.
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"I will make sure until I take my last dying breath that she is remembered with dignity respect integrity, everything you are not Enrique. I will not let you, your evil actions, be her last memory. I'm stronger than that," McElroy said. "I will be her voice. I will be at every parole hearing. I will fight, again, until I take my last dying breath, to make sure that you never see the light of day. You don't deserve it. She did not deserve what happened to her."
In her remarks, McElroy continued to encourage Arochi to tell them where Morris is so that they could bring her home and put her to rest.
"If you have any ounce of conscience or respect for your family, because you've also put them through the same pain and suffering too -- see you took their son away from them -- if you truly care and want to make things better, do the right thing. Enough is enough," McElroy said.
Morris' father, Mark Morris, chose to allow his family to talk about his daughter and instead addressed Arochi directly.
"I see you smirking it doesn't seem to bother you a bit, what you did. She put her trust in you to walk her to her car. And how did you repay that? I can't imagine the fear she went through. But I hope you see that fear where you're going and I hope you see it every single day for the rest of your life," Mark Morris said. "You need to do the right thing and tell me where my daughter's at. If not for me, for her brother, sister, her mothers, grandparents."
After a long pause, Morris ended his statement by looking directly at Arochi and saying, "I hope you rot in hell."
Instead of talking about how losing his sister affected him, Morris' brother, Jacob, chose to share his memories of who she was.
"She wasn't just my sister, she was my best friend. She was one of those people that, you meet her and it truly, truly changes your life. She loves everyone and everyone loves her," said Jacob Morris. "It's hard to get up here and tell you what it feels like because it doesn't feel real. Easiest way to put it - it's a nightmare, one that you can't wake up from. Christina is truly one of a kind ... what I would like to be like myself. I miss her every day, more and more. It's not fair ... this is forever a nightmare."
"She was not yours to take," said Anna Morris, Christina's stepmother. "How can you continue to torture us? How can you sit there and not tell us what happened to our girl?"
Along with those powerful words, there was disturbing new evidence in the sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors brought up a separate charge Arochi faces, sexual assault of a child. He's accused of having sex with a 16-year-old he met at work when he was 22. He's also accused of choking and hitting her during sex.
Detectives also said they found deviant sexual pornography on his phone that was some of the most disturbing they'd ever seen.
No one from Arochi's family was in court Friday.
His attorneys do plan to appeal, based on three things: They don't think there was enough evidence to convict. They think there should have been a change of venue because of publicity in the case, and they thought some of the warrants police used were defective.
Arochi waived his right to have a jury choose his sentence. So the jury that convicted him of kidnapping Morris was sent home Tuesday morning after spending nearly three weeks on the case.
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