North Texas Daily

A Tarrant County jury sentenced Charles Dean Bryant to life in prison Monday for murdering and dismembering Texas Woman’s University student Jacqueline Vandagriff in September 2016.

Bryant, 31, was also convicted of tampering with evidence and received 20 years in prison in addition to the life sentence, according to the Tarrant County Felony Clerk’s Office.

Jacqueline Vandagriff was a 24-year-old nutrition junior at TWU when her burnt and dismembered remains were discovered in a blue kiddie pool at Acorn Woods Park near Lake Grapevine on Sept. 14, 2016.

The two were seen at several Fry Street bars together the night before Vandagriff’s body was found.

The Dallas Morning News reported that one of Bryant’s attorney’s attempted to convince the jury that Vandagriff died of accidental asphyxiation during consensual sexual activity. The attorney claimed that in a panic, Bryant bought a shovel from Walmart and attempted to cover his tracks, which would only make him guilty of tampering with evidence and not of murder.

Bryant did not testify.

Prosecutors claimed there was no evidence Vandagriff and Bryant had sex and used the fact that Vandagriff’s heart had been cut out of her body as evidence that the murder was more than an accident, according to the Morning News.

The death penalty was not considered for this case because Bryant was convicted of murder and not of capital murder. There are circumstantial differences between the two types of crime, according to Texas Penal Code Section 19.02.