N.J. man gets 375 years for brutal 2016 murders of 2 children, college student in Newark – NJ.com

A New Jersey man received 375 years in prison Friday following convictions for three brutal murders in 2016, including the stabbings of two children, after becoming enraged over a comment on Facebook.

One-by-one, family members and friends of Ariel Little Whitehurst, 7; Al-Jahon Whitehurst, 11; and Syasia McBurroughs, 23, stood before Essex County Superior Court Judge Ronald D. Wigler and urged him to give Jeremy Arrington, 32, the maximum sentence for tying up nine people in a Hedden Terrace apartment in Newark on Nov. 5, 2016, and torturing and mutilating them.

Essex County Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab described Arrington’s acts as “pure evil.” He said Arrington treated the apartment like an “amusement park,” stabbing one person and then going throughout the unit and doing it to others before making his way back to each victim and attacking them again.

“He caused as much pain as he could to that family,” Edwab said.

Arrington stabbed the two children more than a dozen times and fatally shot McBurroughs, a family friend, in the head. Three others – Ariel and Al-Jahon’s 29-year-old mother and a set of 13-year-old twins – were tabbed but survived the attack.

After a 10-day trial, Arrington was convicted on 28 charges, including three counts of murder, attempted murder, burglary, criminal restraint, and weapons offenses. Wigler imposed three 75-year sentences for the murders and three 50-year sentences for the attempted murder charges.

Arrington won’t be eligible for parole for 281 years.

“You committed perhaps the most horrific, heinous, cruel, and depraved murders this county has ever seen,” the judge told Arrington. “…This case may be the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Wigler said it was “not fathomable” to try and understand Arrington’s violent actions.

Authorities had said Arrington, who had been a suspect in an earlier shooting and sexual assault, became angry when Ariel and Al-Jahon’s mother commented on a Facebook post about Arrington being wanted by the police.

Arrington had known the family for a long time, though the nature of the relationship is unclear.

He went to the home, broke in with a loaded firearm, and tied up those inside.

One of those people, Bilqis Karam, Ariel and Al-Jahon’s aunt and a close friend of McBurroughs’, spoke at Friday’s sentencing. She described hearing Ariel’s screams in the bathroom as Arrington repeatedly stabbed her until “after a while, she stopped screaming.”

Karam recalled seeing McBurroughs, who she went to college with and worked with at Amazon, being killed execution-style even after McBurroughs, who Arrington did not know, begged for her life.

She also spoke of how Arrington put a gun in her mouth, threatening to kill her too.

“I cannot unsee that. I want to unsee that,” Karam said of witnessing the slayings. “…He really should have killed me that day. I don’t want to feel this pain anymore.”

Authorities said Arrington committed the carnage over an hour and a half until a child hiding in a closet was able to contact a family member, who in turn called police.

Arrington was arrested the next day after a standoff with Newark police.

During the trial, Arrington’s attorney tried to use an insanity defense. But the judge rejected it because the defense lawyer could not find an expert to testify that Arrington couldn’t be held criminally liable for his actions due to his mental state.

Arrington did not take the stand at his trial. A jury convicted him in less than two hours.

On Friday, Arrington read a short statement apologizing to the families. He described his actions as “craziness and uncalled for” and said he would switch places with the victims if he could.

But family and friends of the victims refused to accept his apology.

“This has brought me nothing but pain and misery,” said Mark Follis, McBurroughs’ father. “And it will never go away.”

While they unleashed anger on Arrington, they also shared memories of those who died.

Raymond Davis, McBurroughs’ grandfather, talked about how Syasia, who he called “Sy-Sy,” was set to graduate from New Jersey City University before her death. Her dream was to become a teacher and work with special needs children, he said. Terence McBurroughs, Syasia’s mother, described her only daughter as the “nicest, kindest, most compassionate person.”

McBurroughs would have turned 29 on Wednesday. Her birthday used to be a day that was all about celebration, her mother said.

Now, it has become “day of mourning, pain,” she said.

Family of the two slain children recounted memories of Ariel, who loved school and going shopping with her aunt, and Al-Jahon, who had an infinity for pancakes, honey buns, and video games.

Karam said they all had a lovely start to their day on Nov. 5, 2016, laughing and eating breakfast, until Arrington arrived and went on a “savage rampage.”

Since that day, “it seems like time has frozen,” she said.

As Vanessa Karam, Ariel and Al-Jahon’s grandmother, addressed the courtroom, she turned to the McBurroughs family. Whenever someone stayed at their home, she said she tried her best to make them feel welcomed, treating them better than her own family.

On the day of the murders, she said she could not protect Syasia and apologized to the family.

“There are no words that can take this pain away from you,” Karam said. “…We will forever be bonded together.”

McBurroughs’ family yelled back that they loved her and didn’t fault her.

“Don’t take his blame,” one of them said.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com