MARCH 28, 2019 3:15 PM
“After reaching their verdict of a death sentence for Jacob Sullivan, his jurors were free to leave the Bucks County Justice Center and return to their lives, hopefully putting the horrific story of 14-year-old Grace Packer’s rape and murder behind them.
Instead, all 12 jurors and several alternates walked down the hall to the larger courtroom opened for Sullivan’s sentencing, to bear witness as Judge Diane E. Gibbons sent him to death row.
‘We wanted to see it through,’ said jury foreman Kevin McDermott. ‘You see stuff like this on television, but you’re never immersed in it. For two weeks, we were.’
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Gibbons told the jurors that the evidence has kept her awake at night, and told them not to feel ashamed to seek counseling after their experience in court.
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Gibbons called Sullivan a ‘monster,’
and taunted him for asking detectives to make sure he was placed in protective custody in prison.
‘Like the little baby you are, you asked them to protect you, because you’re scared of having done to you what you did to this child,’ Gibbons said.
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In addition to the death sentence, Gibbons imposed an additional and consecutive life sentence for Sullivan, plus 44 to 88 years in prison. Those sentences will only become relevant if Sullivan successfully appeals the death sentence. Death sentences in Pennsylvania trigger an automatic appeal.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub said Sullivan earned the harsh sentence.
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Sullivan’s public defenders, Jack Fagan and Christina King, declined to comment after the verdict.
Abington police detective Cindy Pettinato called Sullivan’s death sentence ‘appropriate.’ Pettinato started the case against Packer and Sullivan in July 2016, after Sara Packer reported Grace missing to her department, claiming the teen stole $300 and ran away from home. Prosecutors say it was Pettinato’s tenacity in hounding Sara Packer for information and then showing up, unannounced, at Sullivan and Packer’s home, where they were storing Grace’s body, that eventually led to the pair’s arrest.
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That was actually one of Sara’s biggest faults, thinking that it was not going to followed up properly,‘ Pettinato said. ‘It’s part of my job to protect kids, and I’ll make sure I always do that.’
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McDermott, the jury foreman, said that after hearing Sullivan’s taped confession, he was not surprised by Sullivan’s apparent lack of remorse in court.
“He met my expectation of a monster,” he said.
McDermott, a father of two from Wrightstown, said he watched Sullivan’s face closely throughout the hearing and only saw emotion when Sullivan’s relatives were testifying on his behalf. Sullivan even smiled, McDermott said, when one of his cousins verbally sparred with Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, accusing her of getting facts wrong.
‘I saw enjoyment of his face,’ he said.
Dustin Hughes of Quakertown was juror number 12. When the jurors were polled on the death verdict, his voiced cracked with emotion as he confirmed that he agreed. Hughes said afterwards that he wasn’t upset. In fact, he said, despite the length of the deliberations, there wasn’t a lot of tension among jurors. It took time to go over the facts, he said, and everyone wanted to be sure they were making the right choice.
‘I sounded like I was crying, but I think I was just feeling closure.,’ Hughes said. ‘
Hearing the judge talk, I knew that I did do the right thing.’
McDermott said he hoped his work on the jury ensured that Grace Packer would be remembered.
‘
At the end of the day, I hope we gave her a voice,’ he said.” (BBM)
Judge in sentencing Jacob Sullivan to death for Grace Packer murder: 'You have no soul'
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