PHOENIX— Jadyn Curtis (D.O.B. 06-03-1996) was sentenced today to natural life in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to 1st Degree Murder. Curtis also received a consecutive life sentence for Sexual Assault, and consecutive 21-year sentences for Kidnapping and Armed Robbery.

“The grief shown by the community over this heinous crime cannot be erased by today’s sentencing, nor the loss healed for those knew and cared for this victim, said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. “At least those who have been impacted by this senseless loss of life can be confident that this brutal criminal will spend the rest of his life in prison with no opportunity to ever harm innocent people again.”

On June 24, 2018 officers were called to a strip mall near Indian School Road and Drinkwater Boulevard where a 70-year-old victim was found with obvious signs of a physical and sexual attack. The woman frequently slept on a patio at the building and was known to many in the area. Investigators were able to use evidence from the scene and surveillance video from the businesses at the building to determine how the suspect attacked the victim with a large rock before pulling her body into a breezeway where he raped her. A few days later the victim died from her injuries at the hospital and police asked the public for help identifying her killer.

Tips from the public helped investigators to identify Curtis, a former employee of a business near the building where the attack happened. The defendant’s DNA was a match to evidence found at the murder scene.