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Blackwell, 53, slept.
As Grimsinger neared her bed, Blackwell awoke and screamed.
That scream haunted Grimsinger, now 25, on Friday.
The same hands he used to strangle Blackwell were shackled in front of him during a 9 a.m. plea bargain hearing.
District Judge Skipper Koetter sentenced him to a life sentence for felony murder, plus 20 years for aggravated kidnapping.
The plea deal Grimsinger agreed to saved him from facing the death penalty. He had been charged with, among other offenses, capital murder, a crime punishable by death.
Details of the murder were shared during the hearing.
Grimsinger murdered Blackwell, a Victoria Child Protective Services supervisor, on the night of March 13, 2006.
She struggled during the initial strangling, but it’s unknown if she later was able to fight to keep Grimsinger’s rope from cinching around her neck.
After strangling Blackwell, Grimsinger charged to his truck with the woman in his arms. He didn’t leave the Cimarron subdivision, however, without first stealing her purse.
He then drove to a pasture off Hanselman Road, a rural road near areas often used as dumping sites.
“I threw her body over a fence,” Grimsinger said Friday. “It was my belief she was dead.”
She wasn’t.
Blackwell still had vital signs when she landed on a rose hedge, District Attorney Steve Tyler said.
“Why did you kill Sally Blackwell?” Tyler asked.
“I don’t know,” Grimsinger said.
Grimsinger’s father, Mike Grimsinger, sporadically dated Blackwell in the years leading to her death. The father was not in court on Friday.
Tyler said he wasn’t surprised by Grimsinger’s lack of an explanation.
He said it’s common for those found guilty of heinous crimes to become tongue-tied when explaining motives to a grieving family and a packed courtroom.
“I think he probably disliked her,” Tyler said.
This much is known: Grimsinger’s fingerprints were found in Blackwell’s bedroom; investigators recovered DNA from a cigarette that Grimsinger discarded, and it matched DNA from under Blackwell’s fingernails; Grimsinger offered a videotaped confession.
Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor said his office also recorded a jail visit between Grimsinger and his father.
“I can’t imagine you doing something like this,” the father said during that visit.
“I did it, Dad,” Grimsinger said.
O’Connor said he’s glad the case is closed.
“Well, the main thing is that there is closure for all – the family, the justice system, the law enforcement officers, as well as some vindication for our office,”the sheriff said.
The Blackwell family criticized O’Connor’s office for what it called a slow and tight-lipped investigation.
Tyler wasn’t tight-lipped about why he didn’t seek the death penalty. He chose a plea agreement for many reasons, the DA said.
The deal negated a jury trial where risks of an unfavorable verdict and sentence await, Tyler said. By forgoing a trial, it also saves the families from further pain, he said
“Is the sentence we got enough to satisfy the needs of the community and the needs of the families?” Tyler said, adding that he believes justice was served.
The Blackwell family said they were satisfied with how Tyler handled the case.
Defense attorney Elliott Costas said he and Tyler negotiated the plea deal for weeks and more intensely in recent days.
“This is a fair resolution to a very tragic matter,” Costas said. “And the defense hopes that both the Grimsinger and Blackwell families can find peace.”
Blackwell was reported missing on March 14, 2006, after she failed to arrive for work. Her body was found the next day just 10 feet from Hanselman Road.
“I’m relieved that I have been able to reach an accommodation with the state that spares my client’s life, in view of the fact he was facing the death penalty,” Costas said.
The felony murder and felony kidnapping charges will run consecutively, he said. Grimsinger could be eligible for parole in as early as 40 years, he added.
After pleading guilty to the murder charge, the 25-year-old turned to Blackwell’s family. Tyler asked him if he was remorseful.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
Grimsinger then took the witness stand, and both he and Costas bowed their heads.
Blackwell’s family offered victim impact statements.
Mary Allaway, Blackwell’s older sister, said she remembers Sally to be a strong, beautiful woman –“my precious little sister. What happened at the end of Sally’s life was only a brief part of it.”
Blackwell’s daughter, Amanda Taulbee of Austin, said that every time she sees a middle-age woman taking her mother shopping, “I am frozen in sadness.”
Fighting tears, the daughter said that for almost two years, she has struggled to sleep.
But she remembers her mother telling her as a child: “Night. Night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
Sweet nighttime consolations don’t dull the reality of what happened that night, though.
“This was a tragic story of two lives that ended March 15, 2006: Sally Blackwell who physically died alone in the field on Hanselman Road,” Tyler said, “and Jeffrey Grimsinger who died spiritually in the taking of Sally’s life.”
Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com.