Jury hands down death penalty for Jason Thornburg, convicted of gruesome Tarrant County slayings

A jury has handed down the death penalty for Jason Thornburg, convicted of the 2021 slayings of three people in a Euless motel room.

Police found the bodies of David Lueras, 42, Maricruz Mathis, 33, and Lauren Phillips, 34, dismembered and burning in a Fort Worth dumpster in September 2021.

Outside the courtroom on Wednesday, family members of the victims gathered in a prayer circle ahead of the jury's decision.

Jurors in the capital murder trial of Thornburg heard more testimony and closing arguments Wednesday morning before entering the final stage of deliberations to determine whether the 44-year-old would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The punishment phase of the trial gripped a packed courtroom as Thornburg’s defense team presented their final witness on Wednesday: Thornburg’s uncle. He detailed the challenges Thornburg faced growing up on a Navajo reservation, including his mother’s struggles with drug addiction while pregnant with him.

“From the get-go, he was doomed in the womb. He had no chance to be the correct person he should be," said defense attorney J. Warren St. John in the defense's closing arguments.

He also argued his client was mentally ill, and, now on the right medication, should be able to live, albeit in prison.

“He thought he did the right thing by committing a horrible, sinful, sacrifice. It’s the voices he heard, which are not justified, they are evil… but he believed it was correct," he said.

Earlier this month, Thornburg was convicted of capital murder for killing three people—a man and two women—in September 2021. The murders occurred inside his Mid-Cities motel room, where he dismembered their bodies and kept them before later burning them in a Fort Worth dumpster.

According to the District Attorney's office, over seven days at the Mid City Inn in Euless, Thornburg brought each victim, separately, into the room he was renting. There, they said, he slit the throats of Lueras and Mathis. They said he strangled Phillips and sexually assaulted her corpse, and ate some of David's heart and cut off his penis.

During the trial, prosecutors revealed that Thornburg told investigators he committed the crimes because he was called by a higher power to "commit sacrifices."

“We don’t use words like cannibal because it’s fun. We use words like cannibal because he ate David [Lueras]’s heart. We don’t use the word sadist because we think it’s a buzzword, we use the word sadist because he had sex with Lauren [Phillips]’s torso," said Kim D’Avignon, Assistant District Attorney.

During closing arguments, she and fellow prosecutor Amy Allin argued Thornburg was using mental illness as a shield, pointing to his own words.

“I couldn’t use my chainsaw because that would be too loud and I would get caught. I have to use my knife. I can’t carry out the bodies like that, that would be too obvious. I need to get my car back, I need to go buy some bins, and load them up in my car," Allin recounted.

They also tried to discredit defense experts who testified earlier in the trial, stating Thornburg had partial fetal alcohol syndrome and suffered from other childhood trauma.

“Y’all, I have seen better scientific method in a TikTok personality quiz," said D'Avignon during closing arguments. “The words, ‘I’m seeing something’ are just things he says when he’s about to get in trouble or when there’s about to be a trial or when there’s about to be a jury of people that he needs to convince that there’s something wrong with him and to spare his life.”

Prosecutors argued that Thornburg would still be a threat to others behind bars, saying he was still making weapons in his cell as jury selection was happening.

“Imagine what he is capable of with a lifetime of nothing to do but plan," Allin said.

The jury began deliberations on Thornburg's punishment on Wednesday afternoon and returned with the sentence Wednesday shortly after 4 p.m.

Victims' families talk

Victim impact statements were read shortly after the death penalty sentence was announced.

"The defense opened saying life is precious. The life of my brother is precious… and it was snuffed out by Jason Thornburg in 2021. The last four weeks of this trial has been torture," said Lauren Dunfee, Lueras' sister.

Norma Harris told Thornburg even after this sense of justice, their loved ones will still be gone.

"They will never get to see her smile... or get a call from her... they wont hear her daughter's voice again. you took that from them, you took that from all of us," said Harris, Matthis' sister. "I just don't see what she did to deserve what you've done to her."

She said Matthis leaves behind her son, too, whose mom won't be able to see him graduate high school.

"You didn't just take her life, you took mine, sir," Matthis added.

Phillips' aunt, Debra Curry, described her niece as "a giggler" before her addiction; someone who could make anyone laugh.

Curry said Phillips was the first grandchild in her family, and her parents' only child.

"You have said you do the work of God, but it is Satan you work for," she told Thornburg. "You have destroyed all the virtues that God gave to you, and you willfully filled your soul with the work of Satan by slaughtering our beloved."

Although Thornburg was not facing charges or sentencing for two other murders that he admitted to, attorneys talked about them during the punishment phase: His roommate, Mark Jewell, in May 2021, and his girlfriend Tanya Begay in Arizona in 2017.

Begay's cousin, Jackie Reynolds, also gave an impact statement, saying they still don't know where she is.

She said Begay was a mother and grandmother, and like a sister to Reynolds, who grew up with her on the Navajo reservation.

"In the end, you are just a man. Nothing powerful," Reynolds said.

After proceedings, the victims' families spoke to media, thanking Fort Worth and Tarrant County officials for their diligence and hard work, and saying that their faith has given them strength through their journey for justice, and will continue to give them strength as they live without their loved ones.

The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney made a post on social media concerning the case.

A Tarrant County jury sentenced Jason Thornburg to Death Row. pic.twitter.com/LNad1fKCXV

— Tarrant County CDA (@TarrantCountyDA) December 4, 2024