LANCASTER, Ky. (WDRB) -- The man charged with murdering Savannah Spurlock was sentenced Thursday to 50 years behind bars.
Judge Hunter Daugherty sentenced David Sparks to the commonwealth's recommendation of 50 years for murder, 12 years for tampering with physical evidence and 12 months for abuse of a corpse. Those charges will run concurrently for a total of 50 years.
Sparks pleaded guilty to those charges earlier this month.
"We got the killer to admit to what he did," Commonwealth's Attorney Andy Sims told WDRB News after Sparks' guilty plea. "It's no longer a mystery. The world knows who killed Savannah Spurlock. It's David Sparks, and he admitted to it."
The hearing was conducted over Zoom due to COVID-19 protocols. Spurlock's family and friends watched the hearing from the Commonwealth's Attorney's office.
There were no victim statements given by relatives, but Spurlock's best friend, Sabrina Speratos, told WDRB News that friends and family are still shaken.
"He’s taken a mother from her kids, a daughter from her parents, a friend from a friend, and it really sucks," she said. "Not only has he taken that from her, but he’s taken from everyone else.”
While knowing that Sparks is being held responsible for Spurlock's murder brings friends and family a sense of peace, it's still not closure.
Friends say there may never be closure. Sparks has never said why he killed Spurlock.
“We still don’t know why," Speratos said. "We still don’t. It will forever be a mystery until David Sparks himself opens his mouth and says why he did it.”
Spurlock, 22, went missing on Jan. 4, 2019, after a night out at The Other Bar in Lexington. She was last seen on surveillance video leaving the bar with three men, including Sparks.
Kentucky State Police said her badly decomposed body was discovered in July 2019 in a shallow grave at the home of Sparks' parents in Garrard County.
Volunteers searched for Spurlock for months before her body was found. The mother of four had given birth to twins a month before she went missing and had two older children.
It's still not clear how Spurlock died.
Sparks will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years of his sentence.
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