Enrique Arochi will go to prison for life for the aggravated kidnapping of Christina Morris, but that won't end her family's suffering.

District Judge Mark Rusch handed down the sentence Friday, more than a week after a jury convicted Arochi, 26, of the August 2014 crime. Morris is still missing and presumed dead.

Enrique Arochi is sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping of Christina Morris. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

After sentencing, her stepmother, Anna Morris, pleaded with Arochi in an emotional victim impact statement.

"Can you look me in the eye?" Anna Morris asked Arochi. "How can you continue to torture us? How can you sit there and not tell us what happened to our girl?"

She said Arochi took away the family's birthday celebrations, their holidays, their traditions, their life. Christina Morris was 23 when she disappeared.

"She was not yours to take," Morris said. "Please, I beg you. Let me bring my daughter home."

"She was not yours to take," mom Anna Morris tells defendant Enrique Arochi. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

Mark Morris said he misses his daughter's smile, her laugh, the way she lit up a room.

Every day that she's been missing, he told Arochi, "I'm thinking what you could have done with my little girl."

The father called out Arochi, who was smirking in court.

"She put her trust in you to walk her to her car. And how'd you repay that?" he asked. "I can't imagine the fear she went through, but I hope you see that fear where you're going, and I hope you see it every day for the rest of your life."

Family members said their lives have been forever changed. Jobs have been upended, finances have taken a hit, relationships have suffered.

Grief is a constant.

Christina Morris' mom, Jonni McElroy, talks to the media after Enrique Arochi was sentenced to life in prison. (Jae. S. Lee / 2016 File Photo)

" Christina was my miracle," said mom Jonni McElroy, who revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer two years after her only child was born. McElroy said she doesn't sleep much now and always keeps her cell phone close, "thinking I'm going to get that phone call."

She told Arochi: "Do the right thing. Enough is enough."

Case not over

The case was a team effort among the Collin County District Attorney's Office and the Plano Police Department with help from Morris' family as well as their extended network of supporters known as Team Christina.

In the courthouse lobby after the hearing Friday, there were plenty of hugs - and tears. There was also a sense of determination.

"This case is not over," said Plano Police Chief Gregory W. Rushin, adding that the search for Christina Morris will continue.

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The hearing

The victim impact statements came after a brief hearing in which prosecutors offered further evidence of Arochi's character.

A separate charge is pending against him for sexual assault of a child. He briefly dated a girl in late 2012 through early 2013 who was 16 when he was 22. Evidence of the relationship came to light as Plano detectives were investigating the Morris case.

The case was handed off to Allen police detective Phyllis Jackson, who testified Friday that she confirmed their relationship. The two had sex multiple times at Arochi's house in Allen and those encounters included instances of him choking and hitting the teen, according to testimony.

Plano Detective Aaron Benzick testified that a forensic extraction of the cell phone that Arochi had in December 2014 turned up "extreme deviant sexual images ... some of the most intense" he's seen. He said the images included women being tortured, raped, tied up, and mutilated.

Prosecutor Zeke Fortenberry asked for a life sentence for Arochi. The defendant's lies and deceitful behavior show a pattern of the cover-up he's committed, Fortenberry said.

Defense attorneys declined to present any witnesses or evidence during the sentencing phase. They also declined to deliver a closing argument.

After the hearing ended, defense attorney Steven Miears said he believes this is a strong case for appeal. The most significant issues right now, he said, are the sufficiency of evidence to support the verdict and issues related to the change of venue. The defense sought to have the trial moved out of Collin County because of all the publicity. The judge denied the request.

Defense attorney Steven Miears said his team believes there is a strong case for appeal. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

Prosecutor John Rolater is the chief of the appellate division for the Collin County District Attorney's Office who worked with Fortenberry and co-counsel Lisa Milasky King. He said he's confident in the strength of the state's case.

Attorneys for both sides declined to comment on speculation this past week about possible negotiations for a plea deal for Arochi or efforts to get him to reveal where Morris' body might be.

Miears also declined to comment about why Arochi decided earlier this week to let the judge decide his punishment rather than the jury. The decision eliminated any possibility of Arochi receiving probation, which would have been an option for a jury.

The evidence

Morris and Arochi, both graduates of Allen High School, were out partying with mutual friends at the start of the Labor Day weekend two years ago. They were last seen together on surveillance video walking into a parking garage at Plano's Shops at Legacy at 3:55 a.m. Aug. 30, 2014. Arochi's Camaro pulled out of the garage three minutes later.

During the investigation, Morris' DNA was found on two spots of the Camaro's trunk mat as well as on the weatherstripping along the bottom edge of the trunk opening.

Christina Morris

The evidence in the case was largely circumstantial. Defense attorneys questioned the police's theories, saying there were too many unknowns about what might have happened. They also raised suspicions about Hunter Foster, Morris' boyfriend, who was a known drug dealer, and others.

One juror's perspective

Plano retiree William Newbill was one of 12 jurors who heard the case. It was his first time serving on a jury. In an interview before Arochi was sentenced, Newbill described the experience as fascinating, harrowing, emotionally challenging and exhausting all at the same time.

During their 17 hours deliberating behind closed doors, jurors spent a lot of time going through the evidence, he said. They started out unfocused and all over the place. By the second day, with the jury foreman's help, their discussions were more methodical, he said.

They re-watched Arochi's interviews with police. They listened to his audio conversations with detectives. They read through the technical DNA results. They reviewed the cell phone tower data and went through all the evidence photos submitted.

The surveillance video of Arochi and Morris walking into the parking garage together was key, Newbill said.

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"The way cameras are situated there, even then, you simply couldn't leave [the garage] without being seen," he said. "The fact that she never came out on any photographic image absolutely convinced us that she left with him in his car," he said.

Newbill thought Arochi had a strong defense team that "hit every note exactly right" in the case. The jury took time to discuss other possible suspects, including Foster, and alternative explanations for the evidence, Newbill said.

Perfectly fitting puzzle

But all the evidence led them to Arochi, he said. The experience helped restore Newbill's confidence in the justice system. After jurors reached their verdict, Newbill said the jury foreman again "went over the evidence and how it all fit together, repeating all the ways this puzzle fit together just perfectly...

"Now layer on top of that this campaign of deception from beginning to end that Mr. Arochi played with police that demonstrated a consciousness of guilt and an attempt at every step to throw them off.

"We had absolutely no doubt in that verdict, none at all," Newbill said.

Christina Morris' mom, Jonni McElroy, walks into the lobby of the courthouse with Robyn Busby, the Plano Police Department's lead detective on the Arochi case.

Newbill said he was relieved that the decision on punishment was left to the judge rather than the jury. Because of the range of punishment - anywhere from five years to 99 years or life in prison - Newbill said he thinks the jury would have taken several days to reach an agreement.

"A judge with his experience is in a far better position to decide," Newbill said.

Hear more from Newbill in this interview with NBC5's Alice Barr:

There is no doubt in the minds of Christina Morris' parents that the right man was convicted of kidnapping their daughter. At Friday's sentencing hearing, McElroy testified about their loss.

"No mother should be sitting where I'm sitting,"McElroy said. "The pain, the loneliness."

Christina's father testified that he had gone through his own anguish as family, friends and authorities searched in futility for his daughter.

"The only thing in your mind . . . where's my daughter?" he said. "As a dad you're supposed to protect your kids. Knowing you weren't there to do that -- it just hurts."

Christina Morris' father, Mark Morris, left, listens to prosecutor Zeke Fortenberry talk about the case. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

More trial coverage

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'Witchcraft,' magic spells, oily liquid become focal point at Christina Morris trial

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