Man Sexted Women While Girlfriend Was Dead in his Trunk

A Texas man has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend after jurors heard that he sent sexually explicits texts to other women while her dead body was in the trunk of his car, PEOPLE confirms. Jason Lowe, 28, will spend 50 years in prison for the murder of his 27-year-old live-in girlfriend Jessie Bardwell,

A Texas man has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend after jurors heard that he sent sexually explicits texts to other women while her dead body was in the trunk of his car, PEOPLE confirms.

Jason Lowe, 28, will spend 50 years in prison for the murder of his 27-year-old live-in girlfriend Jessie Bardwell, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE. The woman’s decomposing body was found on May 19 in a remote area of Farmersville, Texas. She had been wrapped in a sheet and partially covered with bubble wrap.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Lowe had sexted at least five women and sent some of the women naked photos of himself. When Lowe took the stand, he testified that he had never acted on the texts. His attorney compared his sexual behavior to drug addiction.

During his testimony, Lowe took the stand and claimed that he had accidentally slipped and pushed Bardwell while they were having sex in the shower on May 1. He said she first hit her head on the wall and then on the edge of the bathtub, according to trial records obtained by PEOPLE. Lowe claimed that he and Bardwell had voluntarily taken the the date rape drug GHB as an aphrodisiac.

Lowe claimed that Bardwell sustained a cut to her forehead and felt dizzy. According to Lowe, they took more GHB before taking a nap.

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Lowe said that he awoke and found Bardwell dead. He put her body in the trunk of his car, parked it in his garage in Richardson and on May 9 dumped her in a wooded area.

“I should have called someone,” he testified. “I should have called police.”

When asked by his defense attorney why he didn’t call 911, he responded: “I was scared.”

Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News/AP

Through tears, he told the jury that he knew that not reporting her death was wrong but he didn’t have the courage to contact police. “I was too weak,” he said. “I really made things worse.”

Bardwell’s family reported her missing on May 9 — more than a week after she died — after they didn’t hear from her on Mother’s Day. While the medical examiner was unable to determine how, exactly, Bardwell died, they determined she was a victim of foul play.

“The coroner said the cause of death was homicidal violence,” Richardson Police Sgt. Kevin Perlich said in Aug. 2016, according to the Sun Herald. “That’s the cause of death listed on the death certificate.”

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During the trial, prosecutor Wes Wynne presented evidence that Lowe continued sexting the other women after Bardwell was dead, which prosecutors say displayed a lack of remorse. “Jessie thought she’d met [the] love of her life,” Wynne said during closing arguments. “He turned out to be a monster.”

While Lowe faced a life sentence, the prosecution and defense agreed to cap Lowe’s sentence at 50 years if he would tell authorities where to find Bardwell’s body, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Lowe’s defense attorney, Andrew Farkas, did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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