Jason Isbell, 45, of Hillsboro has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Samuel Israelsen in 2019 in High Ridge.
Jefferson County Div. 1 Circuit Judge Joseph Rathert handed down the sentence on July 11.
A jury found Isbell guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, both felonies, on April 27 following a two-day trial that Rathert presided over at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro.
Isbell’s attorneys, Timothy Fleener and Christopher Huber, have filed an appeal on his behalf with the state Eastern District Court of Appeals.
In the meantime, Isbell is being held in the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.
Israelsen was 41 when he was killed in June 2019 outside the home of Isbell’s friend, Timothy Miller Sr., on Ridgedale Drive in High Ridge, but authorities did not find his body until April 6, 2021. The body, which had been wrapped in carpeting, tarp and other coverings and placed under a wood pile, was located in woods a short distance from the Miller residence.
According to witness testimony, Isbell struck Israelsen in the head numerous times with a metal baseball bat during a fight.
Miller, who testified at Isbell’s trial, previously had been sentenced in connection with the case, receiving four years in prison for abandoning a corpse and two years in prison for tampering with evidence.