A convicted New Jersey serial killer who used dating apps to lure his victims during a murder spree was sentenced to years in prison Wednesday. Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 25, told the court he was framed for the murders of three women, but sat still as a state judge handed down the sentence in Newark. Family members of victims Robin West and Sarah Butler read emotional statements before Wheeler-Weaver learned his fate for the three killings, one attempted murder and counts of kidnapping, aggravated arson and desecration of human remains.
Wheeler-Weaver strangled three woman after meeting them for sex online and dumped their bodies in northern New Jersey between September and December , prosecutors said. Investigators credited friends of Butler, a college student, for using social media to set up a fake account to bait Wheeler-Weaver and lure him to Montclair.
The Philadelphia woman got into a car with Wheeler-Weaver hours before she was murdered and dumped in an abandoned house in the city of Orange that the killer set on fire, the court found. She had a whole entire life before her demise. Hundreds of people were affected by her life and were saddened by her death. Newark resident Joanne Brown, 33, was strangled by Wheeler-Weaver less than two months later, and her body was also dumped in an abandoned Orange house. Butler, 20, disappeared around Thanksgiving and her body was later found in a wooded area.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver arrives in the courtroom, where he was sentenced to years in prison for serial killings. Tiffany Taylor, who survived an attack by the killer, shared her trauma with the courtroom.
