On November 5, 2016, an enraged man entered a New Jersey home in the middle of the day, tied up those inside, and tortured them with knives for at least an hour.
A young girl in the house escaped the man’s torture and called police. They did not get to the perpetrator before he killed 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst, 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst, and 23-year-old Syasia McBorroughs, according to Law and Crime.
What makes the case even more shocking? The murders were reportedly committed over a Facebook post.
“Authorities said Arrington was apparently angry that one of the victims had reposted a Facebook alert from police naming him as a suspect in an earlier shooting and sexual assault,” Fox News reported.
Carolyn Murray, the acting Essex County prosecutor at the time, said at a 2016 press conference that one of the residents of the Whitehurst home “may have posted the media account of the fact that Mr. Arrington was wanted on a social media platform and it appears that that’s part of the motivation, at least, for him going to the house on Saturday.”
Arrington was convicted last month on 28 charges, including three murders, three attempted murders, and burglary. He was sentenced to 375 years in prison last Friday and won’t be eligible for parole unless he were able to serve 281 years of the sentence, per Fox News.
“We are forever grateful to the courageous survivors and witnesses who testified as well as the investigative personnel who helped bring this defendant to justice. Hopefully this verdict will bring some form of justice to all of the families and friends affected by this defendant’s horrific actions,” Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab said.
The three others victimized by Arrington’s crimes were the murdered children’s mother, 13-year-old brother, and 13-year-old sister. They were wounded by Arrington but survived.
Arrington read an apology to the families of those he killed on Friday, calling his crimes “craziness and uncalled for,” according to NJ.com. He also told the families “he would switch places with the victims if he could.” However, the father of the 23 year old killed by Arrington did not accept the apology. “This has brought me nothing but pain and misery,” Mark Follis said. “And it will never go away.”
The judge presiding over the case also had some words for the convicted murderer, saying that Arrington had turned the Whitehurst home into a “house of horrors.”
“You committed perhaps the most horrific, heinous, cruel, and depraved murders this county has ever seen. … This case may be the worst I’ve ever seen,” Judge Ronald D. Wigler said.