A three-judge panel began hearing evidence on June 30 to determine if Bailey Boswell should receive the death penalty. Boswell was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2017 slaying of Sydney Loofe last year.
Aubrey Trail, Boswell's co-conspirator in the murder, received the death penalty just three weeks ago.
Boswell and Trail were both found guilty of first-degree murder by separate juries. Loofe was murdered in Boswell and Trail's Wilber apartment on Nov. 15, 2017. Her dismembered body was found in rural Clay County.
The three-day sentencing trial at the Saline County Courthouse began on June 30. The state is seeking the death penalty, which would make Boswell the first woman in Nebraska to receive a death sentence.
Boswell's attorney, Todd Lancaster, argued that sentence would be unconstitutional as Boswell would be isolated while male death penalty inmates can interact with each other.
The three-judge panel consisted of Vicky Johnson, Darla Ideus (3rd Judicial District) and Peter Bataillon (4th Judicial District). Johnson served as the presiding judge.
Assistant Attorney General Doug Warner focused on how the slaying was planned by Boswell. Among them, Boswell made Tinder accounts under fake names and had a medium-sized sauna suit.
Lancaster said the death penalty is limited to specific cases, and the standard for Boswell to get the death penalty is a crime specifically "heinous, torturous, cruel manifesting in exceptional depravity by ordinary standards of morality and intelligence," according to state statute 29-2523.
According to Lancaster, the mutilation efforts were only to hide the crime.
“The evidence we're going to see today is basically an effort to hide the crime,” Lancaster said. “To basically hide the evidence of Sydney's body, to get rid of it, to dispose of it. That's all it is.”
The states first witness was Eli McBride, a special agent with the FBI who worked on the case before Loofe's body was discovered.
McBride said he found black trash bags with limbs sticking out.
McBride showed photos of the scenes depicting where Loofe's remains had been found scattered around rural Clay County.
The second witness was Dr. Michelle Elieff, who conducted Loofe's autopsy.
Dr. Elieff was asked about photos of remains and if injuries occurred before or after Loofe's death. Elieff noted certain injuries were caused by restraining devices.
The hearing will continue on July 1 and 2 at the Saline County Courthouse.
