HOUSTON - After listening to chilling testimony from the ex-wife and ex-girlfriend of Leon Jacob, jurors wasted no time in sentencing him to life in prison.
On Friday, the former doctor was found guilty of hiring a hit man to kill the ex-girlfriend and his lover's ex-husband.
During Monday's sentencing phase, Jacob's ex-wife testified that he pushed, kicked and bruised her during their marriage. Annie Morrison said Jacob also threatened her with a razor in front of their three-year-old son and with a pocket knife at the airport.
"He threatened that if I ever left, he would kill me. He said no one would ever find my body because he was a doctor and he had access to chemicals that would dissolve my body," she said.
Morrison said Jacob had an affair while she was pregnant. He wasn't working at the time and she said he often spent his time gambling away tens of thousands of dollars.
After she divorced him, he began threatening her and her family. In recordings played in court, Jacob threatened to killed Morrison's parents if she didn't agree to drop supervised child visits.
Morrison got a protective order against Jacob after the divorce.
There was more dramatic testimony Monday from the target of Jacob's murder-for-hire plot, ex-girlfriend Meghan Verikas.
"I have no sense of trust. I’m constantly afraid something else is going to happen," Verikas said.
Prosecutors say Jacob wanted her out of the picture because she had accused him of stalking and assaulting her.
Verikas said the first assault happened after he told her "he didn't like her face."
Jurors also heard jailhouse recordings of Jacob bragging about the notoriety of the case.
"I want Bradley Cooper to play me in the movie," he said.
Jacob was originally charged along with girlfriend and Montrose veterinarian Valerie McDaniel, who committed suicide after the arrests. McDaniel was dealing with a child custody battle with her ex-husband.
RELATED:
- Testimony begins in ex-doctor's shocking murder-for-hire case
- Woman accused of trying to kill ex released on bond
- HPD: Vet in murder-for-hire plot left suicide note
- A look into murder-for-hire suspect's troubled past
- Man accused in murder for hire plot talks to KHOU's Len Cannon
- Dramatic testimony from alleged target in doctor's murder-for-hire case
- Trial underway in notorious murder-for-hire case