Texas man who cut out college student's heart, burned her body is sentenced to life

William Cummings | USA TODAY

A Texas man was sentenced to life in prison Monday for the 2016 killing of a Texas college student in which he cut out the victim's heart, dismembered her body and burned her remains in a kiddie pool.

Charles Bryant Jr., 31, was convicted of killing Texas Women's University student Jacqueline Vandagriff, 24, after meeting her at a bar on Sept. 13, 2016.

Defense attorney Glynis McGinty argued that Vandagriff died during sex that included autoerotic asphyxiation using a zip tie, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. McGinty said Bryant then panicked and tried to dispose of the body.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence Bryant and Vandagriff had sex and that the murder was deliberate.

“Why cut out the heart? What does it have to do with disposing of a body? He cut her heart out,” prosecutor Lucas Allan said, according to the Star-Telegram. "I want that image to sink in."

"We don't celebrate holidays or birthdays anymore," her father, Rick Vandagriff, said in livestreamed testimony during the sentencing phase of the trial. "Friends invite us over for holiday dinners. But we can't celebrate in the house and look at her chair."

Bryant, 31, also was found guilty of tampering with evidence and received 20 years behind bars. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Contributing: The Associated Press