Marine gets death penalty for murder of 2nd Class Petty Officer Amanda Snell

Former Marine sentenced to death in murder of Navy woman
Chicago Tribune
By Katherine Skiba
Published: May 31, 2014

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Saying Jorge Torrez had committed “unconscionable crimes,” a federal judge Friday sentenced him to death for strangling a female sailor near the Pentagon in 2009.

Torrez, a Marine at the time of the murder, also stands accused of killing two young girls in Zion, Ill., on Mother’s Day 2005, and prosecutors in Illinois plan to try him for those crimes.

The death sentence, handed down by federal Judge Liam O’Grady in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, was expected after a federal jury voted unanimously April 24 that Torrez should be put to death for killing Amanda Jean Snell, 20.

Torrez, wearing handcuffs shackled to his waist, said little during Friday’s brief court proceeding, but his lawyers said they would file an appeal in the case.

When Torrez was asked by the judge if he wished to make remarks before the sentencing, he said: “There’s nothing I want to say, your honor.”

The defendant, in forest green jail-issued clothing, was led into the courtroom at 1:32 p.m. EDT.

Seven minutes later, Judge Liam O’Grady said Torrez’s crimes supported the jury’s death penalty recommendation.

“I sentence you to death at this time,” O’Grady stated.
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