Jason Isbell, 45, Hillsboro faces life in prison after a Jefferson County jury convicted him Wednesday, April 27, of murdering Samuel Israelsen in 2019 in High Ridge.
Jefferson County Div. 1 Circuit Judge Joe Rathert presided over the two-day trial at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro, and the jury spent 48 minutes deliberating before returning its guilty verdicts.
Isbell was convicted of first-degree murder, a class A felony, and armed criminal action, an unclassified felony, and he and faces life in prison without parole for the class A felony and a minimum of three years in prison for the unclassified felony.
He will remain in the Jefferson County Jail until his sentencing on July 11 before Rathert.
Israelsen was 41 at the time of his death and lived in St. Louis.
His mother, Diana Israelsen, 62, of St. Louis said she appreciated the jury’s verdict.
“I’m happy it came out the way it did,” she said. “Prosecutor Travis (Partney), I felt, did a very professional job. I’m very happy with the prosecution. I think all the detectives and the Medical Examiner’s Office, they all did a great job in helping bring justice to my son.”
Partney, a Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorney who handled the case for the state, also praised the jury of eight women and four men for their decisions in the case.
“It was a difficult case to sit through due to the graphic nature of the evidence,” Partney said. “But, we appreciate (the jury’s) attention to detail, and their verdict to bring justice to the victim.”
The murder occurred in June 2019 outside the home of Isbell’s friend, Timothy Miller Sr., on Ridgedale Drive in High Ridge, but Israelsen’s body was not found until April 6, 2021, when Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies recovered it in woods a short distance from the Miller residence after a man and his son were walking in the woods and reported seeing something suspicious in the area, according to evidence and testimony at the trial and information from the probable-cause statement in the case.
The report said Israelsen had been dropped off at the home on Ridgedale Drive on or about June 1, 2019.
Miller, 52, previously had been sentenced in connection with the case. Jefferson County Div. 4 Circuit Judge Brenda Stacey sentenced him on Feb. 22 to four years in prison for abandoning a corpse and two years in prison for tampering with evidence, with the sentences to be served consecutively, for a total of six years.
Miller, who was among the several witnesses Partney called to testify at Isbell’s trial, said he and Isbell used methamphetamine at Miller’s residence.
“We were both users,” he said. “I had friends who were users.”
Miller said both he and Isbell were acquainted with Israelsen. Miller also said the night before the murder, Isbell and Israelsen were at his home and got into a dispute over a cell phone, with Israelsen claiming Isbell had somehow damaged his phone.
Miller said Israelsen continued “picking at” Isbell over the alleged phone damage, and the next morning he became aware of what appeared to be a fight going on outside of his house. He said he saw the altercation on his surveillance system and went outside and witnessed Isbell striking Israelsen in the head with a metal baseball bat.
Later Dr. Mary Case, the Jefferson County chief medical examiner, testified and said “cranial cerebral trauma” caused the death and was the “result of repeated strikes to the head.”
Miller said he helped Isbell wrap Israelsen’s body in multiple coverings, including carpeting and tarp. Miller also said they enlisted the help of two other people in the home to gather items to help cover the body, but Isbell and Miller were the ones who wrapped the body.
Miller said Isbell used a four-wheel vehicle to transport the body into the nearby woods, with Miller following on another vehicle.
The body was placed under a wood pile, according to the probable-cause statement.
Another witness, Leslie Heuerman, said she was Miller’s girlfriend when the murder occurred and was inside Miller’s bedroom at the time of the incident, when she could see some of what happened through a monitor Miller installed in the bedroom. She said the monitor showed “a person standing over a body swinging something.”
“There was nothing I could do,” she said. “I was really freaking out.”
Case, Partney’s final witness, said the body was badly decomposed when it was brought to her, but identification was made through dental records. She also said there was enough skin on his left arm showing a “St. Louis” tattoo on it, which helped identify him.
She said the autopsy indicated Israelsen had used methamphetamine before his death.
Defense attorneys Timothy Fleener and Christopher Huber did not call any witnesses to testify, and Isbell did not testify.
In closing arguments, Fleener questioned the prosecution’s pursuit of first-degree murder, saying at most there was evidence for involuntary manslaughter.
“This was a chaotic environment,” he said. “We don’t even know how long they were out there.”
Fleener said there was no premeditation to warrant a first-degree murder conviction.
“Are you firmly convinced this was murder in the first degree?” he asked the jury.
Partney said it was first-degree murder, and Isbell’s attempts to hide the body showed he was aware of what he had done.
“He knew he had killed that man and better get rid of it,” Partney told the jury.
After the verdict, Partney said the death penalty was not sought because the murder did not meet the requirements for a death penalty case.
“By statute, we can only seek the death penalty under certain qualifications, and this case did not meet those,” he said. “An example would be more than one person murdered by the person.”
Partney said he believes evidence showing “the brutality of the assault” led the jury to convict Isbell.
Fleener said he could not comment for this story.
Israelsen’s mother said she misses her son.
“It was a big loss,” she said. “He was an uncle, a brother, a son and a good friend to so many. He was a good husband when they were together.”
She also said she finally has some closure.
“For two years, I did not know where my son was,” she said. “They put him in a shallow grave way back in the woods and let him rot. We did not know where he was.
“It gives me closure that he’s home. We had him cremated.”