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Aurora man gets 48 years for murder of DuPage County jail nurse

A DuPage County judge on Wednesday all but assured Jose Loera will never be a free man again.

Judge George Bakalis sentenced Loera, 38, of Aurora, to 48 years in prison for the 2014 murder of 32-year-old Heather Jacobi.

"This is effectively a life sentence given what we know about the life expectancy of inmates in the Illinois Department of Corrections," Bakalis told Loera.

Bakalis said it was clear from evidence and testimony given Tuesday that Loera had emotionally or physically abused every woman who ever had a relationship with him.

"The defendant is a jealous, insecure, possessive individual," Bakalis said.

Loera pleaded guilty to strangling Jacobi in September, saying he wanted to spare his and Jacobi's families the stress of a trial.

Prior to being sentenced, Loera faced both Jacobi's family and his own, apologizing for his actions.

"I hope my sentencing gives you some closure," Loera told them. "I never planned on Heather dying that night."

Outside court after the hearing, Jacobi's mother, Wendy Jacobi-Manuel, called her daughter a "great girl."

"No matter how many years he gets, justice will never be served," she said. "It won't bring my daughter back."

Assistant State's Attorney Nancy Donahoe, deputy chief of the office's felony division, said Loera became enraged on the night of March 28, 2014, when he showed up, uninvited, at Jacobi's new apartment and discovered she had been texting and exchanging social media messages with another man.

Jacobi, 32, and a nurse at the DuPage County jail, had an order of protection against Loera after several previous domestic abuse situations. She fought and clawed at Loera's face, before he strangled her with the scarf she wore.

Donahoe said Loera then used Jacobi's own stethoscope to confirm she was dead before taking her phone and carrying on three hours of "sexually charged" conversations with at least two men Jacobi had been talking to who Loera considered "rivals."

Jacobi's mother asked police to check on her at 6:17 a.m. the next day and officers said nothing seemed disturbed. They were called back to Jacobi's apartment at 7:37 a.m. after she failed to show up for work.

When police entered the home, they found the woman dead with the knotted scarf still around her neck.

Jacobi, on two previous occasions, had orders of protection against Loera, after he had physically abused her and verbally abused her three children. The most recent order was still in place at the time of her death but had been amended earlier that day.

Donahoe said Loera appeared in DuPage County court on March 28, 2014, to have the order of protection that was issued in January 2014 amended to allow him to contact Jacobi but to have "no harmful or offensive contact with her."

The order was amended despite objections from both prosecutors and Loera's probation officer.

"The night of her murder, Heather Jacobi sent two important texts," Donahoe said. "(They stated) 'I did not let him inside.'"

During Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Bakalis heard testimony and recorded interviews from several women, including Loera's ex-wife, about how he would regularly physically abuse them.

Loera's older brother testified that domestic violence was commonplace in their home as their father violently abused their mother for years before she ended the marriage.

"It's most disturbing that the defendant clearly understood his father's conduct was wrong, but he still chose to emulate that behavior," Bakalis said.

Loera will serve 100 percent of the sentence and he receives credit for the 978 days he's been held on $5 million bail.

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