An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering his roommate was sentenced Friday to 31 1/2 years in prison.
Timothy Sullivan, 66, apologized in court but attributed his actions to a “traumatic brain injury,” KPNX reported.
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” said Sullivan, who described Amy “Ruby” Leagans as a good person.
Judge Justin Beresky rejected Sullivan’s justifications, branding him as a “threat to society” who dehumanized Leagans by scattering her dismembered body parts across the Phoenix area.
Beresky echoed Leagans’ family members.
“He deemed her trash to be dumped in the Arizona desert,” the victim’s sister, Lori Leagans Porth, told the judge at the sentencing hearing.
Instead of going to trial, where other women were prepared to testify against him, Sullivan entered a guilty plea in September.
Leagans, who went missing in October 2020 and was discovered in pieces three weeks later, had her disappearance documented by her family. Sullivan, who admitted to being present at Leagans’ apartment during an altercation that triggered him to fatally strangling her, was later apprehended. The following day, he initiated the process of disposing her body.
He was charged with second degree murder.
