In the summer of 2009, a promising life was cut tragically short in Arlington, Virginia. Amanda Jean Snell, a 20-year-old female Navy petty officer, was found dead in her barracks room at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall on July 13, 2009. Her Navy supervisor discovered her remains inside a wall locker after she failed to report for duty. The discovery marked the beginning of a lengthy investigation to bring her killer to justice.
Investigators eventually focused on a fellow service member, Jorge Avila Torrez, a 25-year-old former U.S. Marine corporal who lived just a few doors down from Snell on the same deck. At the time of the murder, Torrez was an active-duty Marine stationed at the same base. It wasn't until May 2011 that a federal grand jury indicted Torrez for the murder of Amanda Jean Snell. By the time of his indictment for Snell's murder, Torrez was already serving five life sentences plus 168 years for the abduction of two women and the abduction and rape of another in Virginia.
During his trial for Snell's murder, details of the horrific crime emerged. According to court records and testimony, Torrez confessed to a fellow inmate that he had entered Snell's unlocked room while she was sleeping. He then bound her wrists with her laptop computer's power cord and strangled her with it. After killing her, he hid her body in the wall locker where she was later found. Prosecutors argued that the attack was random and sexually motivated, pointing to Torrez's internet history of browsing rape fantasies. Despite his defense attorneys' arguments that the evidence was insufficient, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in April 2014.
Following his conviction, the same jury was tasked with deciding his fate. After hearing further evidence, which included details of his prior violent convictions, the jury sentenced Jorge Avila Torrez to death for the premeditated murder of Amanda Jean Snell. In addition to the crimes in Virginia, Torrez was also linked by DNA evidence to the murders of two young girls in his hometown of Zion, Illinois.
