Convicted murderer who stuffed girlfriend in suitcase gets 25-years-to-life sentence
Updated 5:33 pm, Thursday, April 26, 2018
With his victim’s family sobbing and embracing, a convicted murderer who stuffed his slain girlfriend’s body into a suitcase and tossed it into San Francisco Bay was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison.
Lee Bell, 56, showed little emotion as San Francisco Superior Court Judge Carol Yaggy handed down the maximum sentence for the 2010 slaying that horrified the Bay Area.
“Your actions on that night were calculated, vicious and unspeakably cruel,” the judge said, staring at Bell, who was dressed in an orange jail suit and flanked by two deputies. “Your cruel and despicable treatment of the body magnified the tragedy.”
During the nearly two-hour sentencing hearing at the Hall of Justice, the children, grandchildren and best friend of victim Pearla Louis delivered impassioned statements calling for Bell to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
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Media: FoxLA“You did it,” daughter Ayesha Louis said, staring at her mother’s killer and wiping away tears. “You caused all this destruction, pain and heartbreak. And you should be held responsible for what you did.”
Louis said she was wearing her slain mother’s shoes for the court hearing, to “honor my mom.”
Louis’ grandson, 10-year-old Curtis Wright, was barely able to tell the judge, between sobs, that “everything I do, I wish (my grandma) was there to be with me.” And her best friend, Sharon Frede, stared at Bell and told him to “go straight to hell.”
“I pray you won’t leave prison until you are dead,” Frede said.
Louis’ son, Kareem Marshall, said he felt guilty that he failed to protect his mother after learning of her abuse and her hospitalization for injuries caused by Bell. Marshall, who became a middle school counselor after his mother’s slaying, said he “sympathized” with Bell.
“I have every reason to hate you,” Marshall said. “I forgive you. I sympathize. I hope you get right with God.”
The victim’s family and friends filled two rows inside the second-floor courtroom. Throughout the hearing, they exchanged embraces, tissues and whispered words of comfort.
Last June, a jury convicted Bell of first-degree murder in the strangulation of Louis, 52, whose body washed up inside a suitcase along the Embarcadero.
Bell, who had a long history of domestic violence, had indicated to a social worker that he planned to kill Louis, his girlfriend of two years, prosecutors said. The victim had been staying at a medical “respite center” and shelter at the time of her death, but told a nurse she planned to meet with Bell to collect a debt.
Just before being sentenced, Bell said he was “exceedingly sorry,” and also that he wanted a new trial and to be given a lie detector test.
“It wasn’t a trial I had, it was a lynching,” Bell said.
The judge denied both requests. She called Bell a “serious danger to society” and said there were no mitigating circumstances that would cause her to impose a lesser sentence. She also ordered Bell to reimburse the $7,000 cost of Louis’ funeral.
District Attorney George Gascón said the case had “taken way too long” and that the sentencing was “about accountability, not a celebration.” He urged victims of domestic violence to step forward and seek help, which he said his office was committed to providing regardless of a victim’s immigration status.
Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, a network of service providers for abuse victims, said the sentencing “planted a new seed of healing and accountability” for Louis’ family.
“If you are being battered,” she said, “please reach out for help.”
Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF