ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The man who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old St. Petersburg girl and her unborn child 10 years ago learned his fate on Thursday afternoon.
A judge sentenced 34-year-old Jacobee Flowers to 40 years in Florida State Prison for the murder of his girlfriend Morgan Martin.
Martin was 17 years old and four months pregnant when she disappeared in 2012. Four years later, in 2016, Flowers was charged with first-degree murder.
Martin’s remains were never found. Under a deal with the state, Flowers could have faced just 25 years if he led detectives to Martin’s body.
He pointed authorities to a field in Pike County, Alabama. Earlier this month, detectives from the St. Petersburg Police Department went and searched but found nothing.
Earlier this week, a judge signed an order allowing detectives to take Flowers out of the Pinellas County Jail so he could show them exactly where he buried Martin’s body. Again, they found nothing.
Leah Martin, Morgan’s mother, took the stand and addressed Flowers Thursday.
“And I really hope that every bit of you dies inside. I hope Satan sucks your whole soul out, and your family – I hope there’s nothing ever good that comes to you. Ever,” said Martin. “And I hope that every day that you sleep, you have to see her. Do you understand me? I hope you see her face. And, the child that you killed, You didn’t only kill my child, you killed your own.”
Flowers also took the stand and told the victim’s family he is sorry.
“I’d like to say that I truly apologize to you all,” he said. “And when I say you all, I mean specifically Ms. Leah, Sierra and also Ms. Orr.”
When Martin went missing from her St. Petersburg home in 2012, she said she was going to meet with Flowers, but never came home. She claimed Flowers was her child’s father.
St. Petersburg police officers initially classified the case as a missing persons case, but later classified it as a homicide.
A grand jury indicted Flowers for first-degree murder in 2016. He entered a guilty plea to a second-degree murder charge in March.