Jorge Avila-Torrez

Jorge Avila-Torrez (born August 18, 1988)^[1] is an American serial killer and rapist. A resident of Zion, Illinois, Avila-Torrez murdered two girls who lived in his neighborhood in 2005 and later murdered a female Naval officer in 2009 at Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall. He was sentenced to death by the federal government for that crime as well as receiving a 100-year sentence for the Illinois murders.^[2]

Eight-year-old Laura Hobbs and nine-year-old Krystal Tobias went out to play on their bicycles but failed to return by nightfall on Mother's Day in May 2005. Their families, police, and volunteers searched for the girls all night, but to no avail.^[2] The girls bodies were found the following day by Hobbs's father, Jerry.^[3] Both girls had suffered fatal stab wounds to their necks and faces.^[4][5] In addition, they were sexually assaulted.^[2]

Authorities immediately focused on Jerry Hobbs, as he was an ex-convict. Hobbs had moved to the city in the summer of 2005 from Texas to reconcile with his girlfriend and three children following an incident where he chased off a man with a chainsaw.^[2] Police arrested him for possession of a knife, and after a lengthy interrogation, he confessed to the murders.^[4]

Hobbs spent the following five years in a Lake County jail awaiting trial, despite his defense team and a private laboratory finding that semen samples taken from Laura's body did not match Jerry in 2008.^[2]

Then 16-year-old Jorge Avila-Torrez lived in the neighborhood and was acquainted with the girls, as he was friends with Krystal's older half-brother.

Not long after the double murder, Avila-Torrez joined the Marines.^[4][5] He was stationed at Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall in Arlington County, Virginia. In 2009, he attacked 20-year-old Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Amanda Jean Snell, a Naval Military Intelligence specialist, strangling her to death in the barracks area.^[2] He escaped detection for the murder until he was apprehended for later crimes.

In February 2010, Avila-Torrez stalked and abducted two women in Northern Virginia, binding them with electrical cords in their Ballston apartment. He kidnapped one of the women, ^[6] driving to a secluded area where he raped and strangled her before leaving her for dead at the side of the road. The woman survived and reported the crime, leading to the arrest of Avila-Torrez.^[6] DNA collected and run from this case was linked to the previous murders.

After his arrest, Avila-Torrez was housed with 37-year-old Osama El-Atari, a former restaurateur jailed for defrauding several banks of $53 million.^[6][7] In exchange for a lesser sentence, El-Atari had agreed to carry a wiretap on him, and during one of their recorded conversations, he asked Jorge if he feels any remorse. In response, Avila-Torrez replied negatively and directly implicated himself in all three murders.^[6]

In October of 2010, Torrez was found guilty of rape and kidnapping charges.^[8][9]

On December 10, 2010, Torrez was sentenced to five life sentences without parole plus 168 years by Arlington County Judge Benjamin Kendrick.^[10][11]

In 2011, Torrez was charged by federal authorities in the death of Amanda Snell.^[12][13][14]

In 2013, Jerry Hobbs received 6 million dollars from Lake County after being wrongfully accused of killing his own daughter.^[15]

On April 24, 2014, a federal jury, backed by the jailhouse confession, El-Atari's testimony, and the DNA evidence, sentenced Avila-Torrez to death for the Snell murder, making him the first person since 2007 to receive such a verdict.^[16][17]

A month later, a federal judge officially affirmed the jury's decision.^[18][19]

Following these trials, he was extradited to Lake County and held in the county jail after his initial housing in the Red Onion State Prison.

Avila-Torrez was put on trial for the murder of the two girls that same year. His defense attorney, Jed Stone, attempted to dismiss the DNA evidence as "substandard and weak", additionally pointing out that El-Atari's testimony should be discarded, as he was found murdered during an unrelated robbery in Maryland that February.^[7][20]

On September 18, 2018, Avila-Torrez pled guilty in exchange for 100 years imprisonment and a transfer from Red Onion State Prison, which Stone called "an evil, racist facility."^[5][21] At his sentencing, presiding Justice Daniel Shanes told Avila-Torrez that he was a serial killer, and if he had even a spark of goodness, it was so far out of his reach that it was unattainable.^[3]

• List of death row inmates in the United States
• List of serial killers in the United States