Women testify to Aurora man's abuse before he killed ex-girlfriend

Jose Loera said it was a flirtatious message on a social networking app from another man that caused him to "just ... snap" in March 2014 when he strangled his ex-girlfriend at her home.

"I grabbed her by her scarf and pulled as I just got into a rage," Loera told Aurora detectives in a two-hour confession video played Tuesday during his sentencing hearing. "And I punched her more than once but less than 100 times as she got her nails dug into my face. I didn't stop (choking her) until her hands let go. I let her go and I heard an exhale."

The 38-year-old Aurora man now faces 20 to 80 years in prison, a sentence likely to be handed down Wednesday morning by DuPage County Judge George Bakalis.

Loera, of the 38000 block of Gabrielle Lane, pleaded guilty in September to first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Heather Jacobi, who worked as a nurse at the DuPage County jail.

Loera told detectives he used Jacobi's own stethoscope, which she taught him to use, to confirm she was dead before taking her phone and carrying on conversations with at least two men she had been talking to.

"I put (the stethoscope) on her back," he said. "I swore I heard a heartbeat, but it was just me shaking. It was just me shaking."

Jacobi, 32, on two previous occasions, had orders of protection against Loera after he 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.

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

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

Jacobi wasn't the only woman to have protective orders against Loera.

Prosecutors played a chilling audio interview of the mother of Loera's two teenage daughters, Michelle Gutierrez, in which she described being choked, beaten and locked in a closet for days by Loera, only to be taken out and beaten again at times from 1993 to 2004.

"It was all about the power. He needed to feel the power," she said. "He's a ticking time bomb."

Loera's ex-wife, Laura Stephenson, testified Tuesday to several occasions during their brief marriage when Loera abused her, leading her to get an order of protection in July 2008.

"During the holidays I was struck across the face for buying the wrong size sweater for his brother," she said. "Another time I was punched and hit with a piece of the entertainment center because I purchased incorrect paint brushes to paint the entertainment center."

Erica Hernandez said she dated and lived with Loera briefly in early 2011. She detailed how Loera woke her at 3 a.m. one day by trying to choke her because he thought she flirted with a neighbor the night before. After an intense struggle, she said he acted like nothing happened and went back to sleep.

"As soon as I heard him start to snore I tried to carefully get out," she said. "But he woke up and pointed a gun at my forehead. Then he was tapping the gun against my head."

She said she eventually was able to defuse the situation and escape Loera and the relationship.

Loera's older brother Ibhar Loera testified that he and Jose, who is two years younger, grew up in a household where domestic violence was the norm.

"Our dad would hit our mom. There was punching, kicking and him just throwing her around," he said. "Sometimes it was every weekend."

Ibhar Loera said the boys, even though they were about 6 and 8 at the time, would try to help their mother.

"We used to sleep with weapons so we could defend our mom if we needed to," he said. "Sometimes we would have to stand with a bat between my mother and father and tell him to stop it."

Loera has been held on $5 million bail in Kendall County jail for his safety due to Jacobi's status as a jail employee and her friendship with several deputies.

Bakalis is expected to hand down Loera's sentence after arguments scheduled for Wednesday morning.