A husband raped and murdered his estranged wife while she was on the phone to a job interviewer who heard the horrifying ordeal unfold.
Jamie Wilson-Spray, 25, was strangled by Jacob Spray while interviewing for a chef position with Spokane’s Women and Children’s Free Restaurant and Community Kitchen in Washington.
She was on the phone with manager Melissa Berry on March 26 last year when Spray pounced.
‘It was a scream I will never forget,’ Berry testified last week, the Spokesman-Review reports.
Police said when they got to her home at around 7pm, Wilson-Spray was dead with a freshly bought pizza lying by her side.
‘Jamie appeared to be deceased and had marks near her neck. I suspected she had been strangled as I saw no other obvious injury,’ an officer wrote in the booking report.
Spray was later picked up at another address and had to be tasered to be subdued.
He was then taken to Pullman Regional Hospital and into custody.
Jamie Wilson-Spray, 25, was raped and murdered by her ex-husband while she was on the phone for a job interview
Spray was reportedly enraged that she was moving on with her life following their split
Prosecutors said Spray carried out the brutal act after becoming enraged that his wife was moving on with another man following their separation.
At trial, it emerged that he confessed to his mother that he had installed cameras inside her trailer to spy on her.
Pathologist Norman Thiersch told the court that Wilson-Spray died by homicide as a result of compression of the neck.
He observed multiple blunt force injuries which were sustained while she was still alive including bruising to the face, neck and chest, as well as lacerations to the neck and chest.
Spray’s defense argued that the prosecution was relying on speculation and that he was not at his ex-wife’s home long enough to carry out the attack.
However, prosecutors told the court that Spray called his father to confess to the crime and that a delivery driver had placed him at the scene.
He was found guilty after four hours of deliberation by the jury. He faces at least 20 years in jail and is due to be sentenced on March 24.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan LeBeau said he is seeking the maximum penalty, KLEW TV reports.
Wilson-Spray died following compression of the neck, a pathologist told the court
The killer is now facing up to 26.5 years in jail and prosecutors say they will be seeking the maximum penalty
Wilson-Spray was an aspiring chef who was three weeks away from completing her master’s degree at Washington State University at the time of her murder.
At trial, her family wore t-shirts using artworks she had designed with the caption: ‘Justice for Jamie’.
‘She just had so much life to go live,’ Wilson-Spray’s sister Amber Moore said.
‘She liked to go try new things, and she wanted to go learn Southern cooking, so she did it.
‘She could learn to play any instrument she picked up within minutes. She could do anything.’
