A man who beat a university student before stabbing, then strangling her to death after she refused to perform a sex act has been jailed for life. Joshua Hupperterz, 30, was found guilty of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime, after murdering 22-year-old Jenna Burleigh inside his Philadelphia apartment in August 2017.
The court heard how the encounter began consensually having met earlier in a bar, but things quickly turned violent back at Hupperterz’s apartment after Jenna refused to have anal sex.
Hupperterz then beat Jenna 38 times, stabbed her and then strangled her to death, before making an attempt to conceal her body in a plastic storage container and hide it in a shed near his grandmother’s home.
“You’re going to watch and you’re going to see how her body was beaten and contorted, and how he tried to cover it up,” Assistant District Attorney Jason Grenell told the jury at the beginning of the trial.
Hupperterz pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, but denied committing the murder.
Instead he tried to claim his roommate, Jack Miley, actually killed Jenna after trying to intervene in an argument between the pair.
Police dismissed the statement as a blatant lie – a belief backed up by DNA evidence at the scene.
Jenna died from blunt trauma and strangulation.
The 30-year-old then stuffed the student’s body into a storage container and took it to his mother’s house.
He then used a smart-phone ride-sharing service to transport her body more than 100 miles away to his grandmother’s house.
Jenna’s body was found in a shed behind the property a few days later.
Hupperterz refused a plea deal in December and was sentence to life behind bars on December 17.
During the trail last week, the defendant’s cousin spoke of how he unknowingly helped move Jenna’s body.
Erik Carlson told the court he hauled a blue tote containing Jenna’s body but never asked what was in the bag.