A convicted killer is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars after a New Jersey judge sentenced the 31-year-old to 375 years for a triple murder that claimed the lives of three people, including two children, in 2016.
Jeremy Arrington was sentenced Friday, more than five years after he entered a Newark home and fatally stabbed 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst, 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst and 23-year-old Syasia McBorroughs.
The judge presiding over the case said Arrington created "a house of horrors," resulting in one of the worst murder cases in Essex County history. Judge Ronald Wigler handed down three life sentences (75 years) for each of the murders, and an additional 150 years for other counts including attempted murder.
Investigators said Arrington went to the Hedden Terrace home on Nov. 5 after one of the stabbing victims posted on social media that police were looking for him in a sex crime, sending the man into a fit of rage. He entered the home in the middle of the afternoon and tied up seven people inside, torturing them with kitchen knives, prosecutors argued.
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A young girl able to escape and call for police from her phone helped save the remaining victims. The 29-year-old mother of the dead children and two 13-year-olds, a girl and a boy, survived the attack.
Prosecutors say Arrington fled the scene of the bloodbath after the attack. He was taken into custody the next day after law enforcement found him barricaded in a home on Pomona Avenue, authorities said.
A 10-day trial concluded with convictions on 28 counts, including murder, attempted murder, burglary, criminal restraint, and more. Twenty-five witnesses took the stand during the trial.
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"We are forever grateful to the courageous survivors and witnesses who testified as well as the investigative personnel who helped bring this defendant to justice. Hopefully this verdict will bring some form of justice to all of the families and friends affected by this defendant's horrific actions," Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Justice Edwab said.
Arrington will be eligible for parole after serving 281 years. He apologized to family members of the victims and one of the survivors, who spoke in court Friday.
