JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A jury on Thursday recommended life in prison for the man convicted of raping and murdering a 10-year-old Jacksonville girl more than 30 years after her death.
James Jackson, 66, was Tammy Welch's neighbor when he murdered her in 1984. Jackson was a suspect from the beginning, but wasn't arrested and charged until 2013, which is when the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office found DNA evidence linking him to Tammy's death.
During the penalty phase, Tammy's family members spoke to the court. Michael Welch Sr., the girl's father, remembered Tammy as a sweet and intelligent child who enjoyed art, reading and music.
"Tammy wanted to play the guitar and sing, so her grandmother got her an acoustic guitar for Christmas 1983," he said. "Not knowing eight months later, the guitar would be silenced forever. I still have her guitar in the original box case. It has not been touched since."
The pain of losing his daughter, he said, is only magnified during Christmas.
"In just a few days, we will celebrate another holiday, and I will stand there looking at an empty seat for the 35th year and painfully wonder all over again what should have been," Welch Sr. said. "No matter what anyone says, the loss and suffering truly never goes away. It just becomes tolerable."
Jennifer Roache, Tammy's younger sister, echoed her father's pain, sharing the agony of not knowing what could have been memories.
"I'll never meet Tammy's -- her children or her grandchildren. I will never be there for Tammy at her worst or her best," Roache said. "All I'm left with, and all I can do is give Tammy justice, a voice of what was the last day of her short life and the life that was taken from me."
On Thursday, the second day of his penalty phase, Jackson's attorneys called witnesses including family members and a neurologist who said Jackson suffered several strokes and suffers from dementia.
In closing arguments, the state said those were not things to consider, saying Jackson didn’t suffer from strokes or dementia in 1984 when he raped and murdered Tammy. The state asked the jury to consider the death penalty, saying Tammy was not so lucky to have a swift and painless death.
After the verdict was read, Roache told News4Jax she felt relieved that her family can now begin to move forward.
"She got justice," said Roache, whose daughter she named after her sister. "Everyone in the family will continue to know who she is."