ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa (Court TV) — Michele “Luna” Jackson’s family delivered powerful victim impact statements as her killer was sentenced to life in prison.
Nathan Bevers-McGivney sits in court during his sentencing. (Court TV)
Nathaniel Bevers-McGivney, 22, was convicted of fatally stabbing Jackson, 17, who had gone to visit a local park. Prosecutors, recounting the crime in court, detailed that the victim’s throat was slit “with such force that the knife reached all the way to her spinal cord,” and the body was dragged to a rolling dumpster bin and covered with trash.
Emotional victim impact statements read by victim’s advocates in court remembered Jackson as “funny and full of life,” and noted the many obstacles she overcame in her short life, including diagnoses of autism, ADHD and PTSD.
“I see through you. There is nothing impressive, powerful or intimidating about what you did,” said Jackson’s sister, Shawna Bachman, addressing the defendant at the sentencing. “You are nothing.”
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Bachman, who testified at Bevers-McGivney’s trial, said that it’s hard for her to see the reminders of her sister’s murder in her day-to-day life. Bachman was credited with confronting Bevers-McGivney as they searched for Jackson, and had her boyfriend hold him at gunpoint until police arrived. “Our town is plagued with memories,” she said, with even trash cans triggering her.
Bachman looked ahead to Bevers-McGivney’s future in prison, saying, “You’re now the property of the state, and likely the other inmates. … I hope they show you the same amount of mercy you showed Michele.”
In a statement read by a victim’s advocate, Jackson’s mother told Bevers-McGivney, “I hope you are someone’s prey. I hope you are trapped in a nightmare.”
“There’s nothing about this case that warrants any kind of leniency in this court,” Judge Derek Johnson said and called the murder “acts of pure evil” as he handed down the maximum sentence of life in prison plus ten years, to run consecutively.
