A Texas man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after being found of guilty of murdering his girlfriend, who he claimed died after she fell and hit her head when they were having sex in the shower.
A jury found 28-year-old Jason Lowe guilty in the May 2016 death of Jessie Bardwell, 27, in their Richardson, Texas home.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Lowe waived his right to have the jury assess punishment. Prosecutors and defense attorneys reached an agreement for a sentence of 50 years, which was approved by a judge.
Murder convictions in Texas typically carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. But prosecutors and the defense reached a deal to cap any sentence for Lowe at 50 years in exchange for him telling authorities where they could find Bardwell’s body.
Lowe had told jurors on Monday that they had been taking the mind-altering drug GHB before having sex in a shower where she fell and struck her head twice.
He testified that the couple decided to lie down after the fall but, when he woke up, his girlfriend was dead next to him.
Jason Lowe, 28 (pictured) racts on Wednesday after he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend, Jessie Bardwell, 27, who he claimed died after she fell and hit her head when they were having sex in the shower
Lowe had told jurors on Monday that they had been taking the mind-altering drug GHB before having sex in a shower where she fell and struck her head twice. He testified that the couple decided to lie down after the fall but, when he woke up, his girlfriend was dead next to him
In a victim impact statement on Wednesday, Gary Bardwell (pictured) stated that with his daughter’s death, ‘there’s a deafening silence in my life’
In a victim impact statement on Wednesday, Gary Bardwell stated that with his daughter’s death, ‘there’s a deafening silence in my life’.
She was a daddy’s girl and called her Jessie Boo, he said.
He said during his victim impact statement that some people ask him whether he could forgive Lowe for killing his daughter. He said he tells them: ‘How do you forgive the devil?’
In court on Monday, Lowe reenacted the moment he claims he woke up and discovered Bardwell’s dead body.
‘I should have called the police,’ he told the court, adding that he ‘was scared’ and ‘really made things worse’ by putting Bardwell’s body in his Audi and later leaving it on a rural property, the Dallas News reported.
Lowe said they had been taking GHB, a common date rape drug, at the time of the incident.
In court on Monday, Lowe (left) reenacted the moment he claims he woke up and discovered Bardwell’s dead body.
‘I should have called the police,’ he told the court, adding that he ‘was scared’ and ‘really made things worse’ by putting Bardwell’s body in his Audi and later leaving it on a rural property
He testified that Bardwell died either late on the night of May 1, 2016, or in the early hours of May 2, 2016.
Bardwell’s decomposing body was found in a muddy region of Farmersville, Texas, on May 19, 2016.
Her body was found wrapped in a sheet and partially covered in bubble wrap, and a truck mat from Lowe’s Audi Q5 SUV was found nearby.
Bardwell’s body was too decomposed for the medical examiner to determine how she died, but her cause of death was listed as homicidal violence.
Her autopsy also showed no presence of prescription or illicit drugs, though GHB requires a separate test.
Lowe testified that he and Bardwell met through mutual friends and knew each other for several years before starting to date.
Bardwell’s decomposing body was found in a muddy region of Farmersville, Texas, on May 19, 2016. (Pictured above, Lowe testifies on Monday)
The couple is believed to have started dating before she moved to north Texas in December 2015. By April 2016, the couple was planning on getting married, Lowe (pictured) said
They are believed to have started dating before she moved to north Texas in December 2015.
He said that Bardwell had gotten an abortion in February 2016 after getting pregnant by a different man before moving to Richardson to be with Lowe.
Lowe also admitted to sexting other women while he and Bardwell lived together.
He told jurors on Monday that he had been to rehab several times for using drugs including Xanax, Oxycotin and heroin.
By April 2016, the couple were planning on getting married, Lowe said.
Records show that Lowe was previously arrested on May 29, 2015, for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. His then-girlfriend at the time accused him of assaulting her to the point that she lost consciousness. It’s unclear if the alleged victim in that incident was Bardwell.
In the months before Bardwell’s death, she and Lowe used GHB as an aphrodisiac due to its ‘euphoric feeling’, Lowe testified.
It’s unclear which day exactly Bardwell died, but her father grew worried about her on Mother’s Day – May 8 – when she didn’t call either her mother or her stepmother.
Lowe told jurors that after finding Bardwell dead, he put her body in his Audi in their garage.
It’s unclear what day exactly Bardwell died, but her father (left, with Bardwell) grew worried about her on Mother’s Day – May 8 – when she didn’t call either her mother or her stepmother
He said he would ‘go downstairs and talk to her’ and continued to send her emails as if she was alive.
Bardwell’s father called police in Richardson, asking them to conduct a welfare check at the apartment she shared with Lowe on May 8.
He allegedly told police that he also hadn’t heard from his daughter in the two and a half weeks before Mother’s Day.
On their first trip to Bardwell’s house, cops spoke with Lowe, who told them that his girlfriend had left earlier that morning
On their first trip to Bardwell’s house, cops spoke with Lowe, who told them that his girlfriend had left earlier that morning – around 8am – in her Acura MDX and that she hadn’t been back yet.
He also said he couldn’t call her since her ‘pay as you go’ mobile phone had expired. Police left and came back to the apartment later that day, when they found the residence empty.
The next day, they returned to the apartment just as Lowe was driving his black 2010 Audi SUV into the garage. Both the car and Lowe were covered with mud.
When Lowe got out of the SUV, he told police that his girlfriend never came home so he went out to look for her on some of the paths off of President George Bush Turnpike that she frequented.
He told police that initially he wasn’t worried about her not returning for hours because they ‘lead a lifestyle where they both do their own thing without being co-dependent’.
Police asked him about the mud, and Lowe said it was from chasing after his dog when it ran away during the search. But police noted in their report that the dog was not at all muddy. As for the dirt on the SUV, Lowe said it was from going ‘mudding’ recently.
He let police look around apartment, and they left after finding nothing more suspicious.
The investigators later searched through the back of an Audi and notice a pool of what appeared to be blood in a spare tire compartment that had leaked through the vehicle and onto the floor of the garage.
They also remarked that there was ‘a distinct smell of decayed flesh was found to be emitting from the garage area’.
They then took Lowe into custody, arresting him first on cocaine possession charges.
Bardwell’s father (left, with Bardwell) police in Richardson, asking them to conduct a welfare check at the apartment she shared with Lowe on May 8.
Bardwell’s body was found wrapped in a sheet and partially covered in bubble wrap, and a truck mat from Lowe’s Audi Q5 SUV was found nearby
The next day, when officers returned and found yet more evidence of blood throughout the vehicle and a bullet hole in the wall of the garage, Lowe was officially charged with murder and ordered held on $1million bond.
Crime scene investigators confirmed on May 13 that the liquid in the Audi was in fact blood, and that it was spread all through the vehicle – on the floor of the rear compartment area, on a storage compartment on the gear shift, on the steering wheel and on the driver’s side door handle.
The investigators also spotted a bottle of cleaning solution sitting on a dresser near the rear passenger door, a shovel leaned against one of the walls and a pair of muddy boots in the back of the car.
A bullet hole was found on the rear west wall of the garage.
Police later talked to a witness who told police that she saw Lowe cleaning the bed of his truck and removing numerous trash bags from a box on May 7.