A man has been sentenced to 375 years in prison for the 2016 slayings of three people, including two children, in New Jersey’s largest city, which authorities said were motivated by his rage over a Facebook post.
Last month, jurors in Essex County deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Jeremy Arrington, 31, of three counts of murder and attempted murder, as well as burglary, criminal restraint, and weapons charges.
Judge Ronald Wigler sentenced the defendant to three consecutive life terms in the slayings, as well as consecutive sentences on other counts, on Friday, calling the slayings “perhaps the most horrific, heinous, cruel, and depraved murders this county has ever seen.”
Prosecutors claim Arrington broke into a Newark home in November 2016, tied up people inside, and stabbed them with kitchen knives, killing 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst and 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst before shooting dead 23-year-old college student Syasia McBurroughs, who was visiting the family.
Three people were injured: a 29-year-old woman, a 13-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old girl. According to prosecutors, a young girl with autism was able to flee and call for help from a closet, allowing authorities to react before more lives were lost.
According to authorities, Arrington was reportedly enraged that one of the victims had previously posted a police Facebook alert naming him as an accused person in an earlier shooting and sexual assault.
In addition to the three life sentences, the judge sentenced each of the three attempted murder convictions to 50 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Newark Fatal Stabbing (2015)
Under New Jersey law, a life sentence is 75 years, and a defendant must serve 63 years and nine months before being eligible for parole. Prosecutors said that under the law, Arrington would not be eligible for parole until he had served 281 years of his 375-year sentence.
At trial, the defense attempted to use an insanity defense, but the judge rejected it because the defense lawyer has been unable to find an expert to testify that Arrington couldn’t be held criminally responsible for his actions due to his mental state, according to NJ.com.
