A Marine corporal strangled a Navy petty officer in her barracks room in 2009, then stuffed the body inside a locker, according to new court documents.
The documents filed in federal court in Alexandria are the first time authorities have publicly described how Jorge A. Torrez allegedly killed 20-year-old Amanda Snell at Fort Myer-Henderson Hall.
Torrez, 23, was indicted for first-degree murder last year, and prosecutors will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. In 2010, he was convicted of abducting and raping one woman and robbing another in separate Arlington County attacks, and he was charged earlier this month with killing two young girls in 2005 in Illinois, where he used to live.
Snell, who had been assigned to the staff of the chief of naval operations at the Pentagon, was found “wedged inside a closed wall locker” in her barracks room at about 6:30 a.m. on July 13, 2009, after she didn’t show up for duty, according to court documents.
A pillow was wrapped around Snell’s head, and Torrez “killed Ms. Snell by strangling her,” the documents say.
Prosecutors made those disclosures in a 68-page response to several procedural motions Torrez’s attorneys filed regarding his trial and challenging the determination to seek the death penalty.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 28, and evidence is slated to start being presented Feb. 13.
Torrez, who served in the Marines from September 2006 to April 2010, lived seven doors away from Snell at Henderson Hall. In court records, prosecutors say his DNA was obtained from semen found in her room.
Prosecutors also contend that Torrez admitted killing Snell; in the government’s notice that it would seek a death sentence, prosecutors wrote that he “bragged about killing Snell and the thrill it provided.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has said the Arlington and Illinois crimes contributed to the decision to pursue the death penalty.
He was sentenced to five life terms in the Arlington attacks.
In Illinois, he is accused of stabbing 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias to death in May 2005 in Zion, a small town outside of Chicago. Laura’s father, Jerry Hobbs, spent five years in jail awaiting trial until charges were dropped after DNA evidence implicated Torrez.
