A Texas man was sentenced to life in prison for “heinously” murdering his girlfriend after burnt human remains were discovered in his backyard following her 2019 disappearance, a district attorney said.
A judge delivered Jeffrey Lee Devorah his sentence on Tuesday, September 30, as family members and friends of Tiffany Garza were present in the courtroom, according to a news release from Atascosa County District Attorney Audrey Gossett Louis.
Devorah, 47, who was found guilty in Garza’s murder on August 13, agreed to let the judge “decide his punishment,” the district attorney said.
He’s required to serve 30 years in prison before he’s eligible for parole.
Garza, who was 37 when she died, was last seen on March 25, 2019, before she was subsequently reported missing. At the time of her disappearance, she had been living in Poteet, located 30 miles south from San Antonio.
Nearly four years later, Devorah, who was described as Garza’s boyfriend, was arrested on a murder warrant in connection with her death, according to a March 22, 2023 statement from former Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward.
Devorah was identified as Garza’s alleged killer after a tip pointed investigators to a witness who revealed they were there when Garza was murdered, the district attorney said.
The witness also said they helped “burn her body in Devorah’s backyard,” according to Louis, who didn’t identify the witness by name.
Investigators suspect Garza was killed sometime between March 28, 2019 and April 4, 2019, authorities have said.
After the witness said Garza’s body was burned, forensic anthropology experts from Texas State University found 14 pieces of human bones in a burn pile in Devorah’s backyard, the district attorney said. They determined the bones belonged to a woman who was between 22 and 56 years old.
Investigators also found blood at the home where the burn pit was located.
Although a scientific analysis couldn’t recover DNA from the bones, testing of blood evidence resulted in a DNA profile “consistent with someone who was the biological mother of Tiffany’s son and the biological daughter of Tiffany’s mother,” the district attorney said.
Devorah also allegedly made incriminating statements to an ex-girlfriend that aligned with evidence of Garza’s murder and the witness’s statements about her body being burned, according to Louis.
“This life sentence means a man who committed a heinous murder is off our streets and held accountable for taking Tiffany’s life,” Louis said in the news release.
“No sentence can restore what her family has lost, but Tiffany’s life — and the truth about what happened to her — deserved every bit of that effort,” the district attorney also said. “Tiffany’s life mattered. Our thoughts remain with her family and everyone who loved her.”
