Suspect Dies in Crash After Stabbing Estranged Girlfriend ‘As much as 70 Instances’ in Break-In: Sheriff

He pleaded accountable on September 3, 2024 to bills of second-degree murder and concealing a physique, eliminating the need for a trial. Nonetheless, the prosecution spoke to the resolve ahead of Sullivan’s sentencing, as did the sufferer’s family.

The prosecutor often called him a “convicted liar” and “predator,” per NBC affiliate KPNX. As well as they well-known that completely different women allegedly victimized by Sullivan had acknowledged they’ve been ready to journey from out of state in order to testify in opposition to him in a murder trial.

Leagans’ family moreover spoke out ahead of sentencing, describing Sullivan as a “repeat offender,” referencing allegations that he had a jail historic previous of exploiting the idea of others, as reported by KPNX.

As well as they reminded the resolve of how he had brutalized the sufferer, and desecrated her stays, likening his actions to how a butcher cuts up a cow. “He deemed her trash to be dumped throughout the Arizona desert,” one in every of many sufferer’s sisters knowledgeable the resolve, per the outlet.

KPNX moreover reported that Sullivan was on probation for aggravated assault sooner than Leagans’ lack of life. He indicated to police upon his arrest that his actions “have been spontaneous and heinous in nature,” per licensed paperwork.

In asserting his sentence, the resolve made an similar remark, calling Sullivan a “hazard to society” and saying he “dealt with [the victim] like trash.”

Sullivan was sentenced to 25 years for the murder value, and an additional six-and-a-half years for attempting to cowl her stays. These sentences is perhaps served consecutively.

“What that man did to my sister, what he did on this judicial system, his manipulations, his lies, is excruciating,” Leagans’ sister Lori Porth knowledgeable KPNX after the sentence.

“He can’t injury anyone else and that not lower than helps me uncover some type of peace,” added her completely different sister Christa Holton.

Amy Leagans was reported missing on October 27, 2020 after her mother had not heard from her shortly. Upon deeper investigation, police determined the ultimate time she was seen alive was October 14.

Leagans had solely simply these days moved to the Arizona house, as reported by KSAZ, having relocated from Illinois in June or July of that 12 months. In the intervening time, police determined that Leagans was residing with Timothy Sullivan in a shared condominium in Chandler. KPNX reported in 2020 that courtroom paperwork acknowledged Leagans and Sullivan have been in a relationship.

Due to his “violent jail historic previous of house violence related offenses,” per KSAZ, police have been immediately suspicious of Sullivan having some involvement in her disappearance, though the two have been not residing collectively.

The first big break throughout the case acquired right here whereas they’ve been trying to make contact with him at his latest sort out and came across his automobile parked there.

Inside, investigators reported discovering “a bottle of bleach, latex gloves, a scrub brush, mattress sheets, pillowcases and a duffle bag,” per the outlet. This led to a search warrant on November 11, 2020, which uncovered an house throughout the yard that had been raked and coated calmly with mulch, per police.

“This house was unearthed and objects of burned garments, human hair, a bracelet and a tag (dimension 6) for an article of ladies’s garments [were] positioned,” police reported in courtroom paperwork. As well as they reported a lot of the uncovered objects smelled “of an pace up very similar to lighter fluid.”

Police further detailed discovering human blood on Leagans’ mattress inside her condominium, on the once more seat of her vehicle, and on a pillow found inside Sullivan’s automobile.

Merely six days later, they discovered the stays of a human torso near the Salt River. “The physique was that of an nearly skeletonized female that was inside a black plastic bag and coated with mulch,” investigators acknowledged in courtroom paperwork. “The physique confirmed indicators of trauma and was dismembered.”

On November 19, two days after it had been discovered, the stays have been positively acknowledged as Leagans. Police reported Sullivan as being taken into custody on November 25.

Early of their investigation, police discovered a police report relationship once more to September 2020 the place Amy Leagans acknowledged Timothy Sullivan had pushed her a lot of situations all through an argument. Knowledge current there was no proof of an altercation and “no enforcement was taken” for the time being.

Police lastly found Sullivan staying at an ex-girlfriend’s house in Scottsdale after Leagans’ disappearance. The women reportedly knowledgeable officers, according to AZ Family, that she had a “troubled relationship” with Sullivan.

The unidentified woman moreover detailed an alleged newest altercation she’d had with him the place he’d strangled her and threatened to “bury me throughout the once more yard like Amy.”

Based mostly on courtroom paperwork, after he was arrested in relation to Leagans’ disappearance — and at last murder — and after having been be taught his Miranda Rights, Sullivan confessed to killing her.

He knowledgeable investigators, per courtroom paperwork, that they’ve been arguing at Leagans’ dwelling when he “snapped” and “choked the sufferer until she stopped respiration.”

He then left her physique alone throughout the condominium for two days, sooner than Sullivan confessed to returning, wrapping her physique in a tarp and burying her throughout the once more yard.

He knowledgeable police that after he “turned apprehensive,” he exhumed the physique. It was then that he decided to dismember her physique with an ax, telling police he positioned fully completely different limbs in trash receptacles throughout the East Valley and dumped her torso throughout the desert the place she’d been recovered.