CANANDAIGUA - Precious Arzuaga and her former girlfriend, Jennifer "Brooklyn" Quijano, were both sentenced to life in prison today for the role they played in the kidnapping, murder and torture of Sam Nordquist.

Arzuaga led Quijano and five others in a crime that prosecutors and the judge today said was like nothing they had ever encountered.

"This is the worst of worst," Ontario County First Assistant District Attorney James Nobles said. "It may be common on television or in the movies, but not in real life."

It horrified the small Finger Lakes town and captured the attention of national and international media outlets.

Arzuaga lured Nordquist, a 24-year-old trans man, from Minnesota to Canandaigua in September 2024 with the promise of love. But Arzuaga became increasingly manipulative, controlling and violent.

Then she enlisted Quijano and five others, including her son, to beat and torture him as they held him captive. The rundown motel room where he thought he was building a family with Arzuaga and her two children became the place where he was held captive for more than a month, beaten and caged like a dog.

Starting Jan. 1, 2025, the group began beating, torturing and sexually assaulting Nordquist.

He died of his injuries, and the crew dumped his body in a remote farm field. Police found his remains on Feb. 13, 2025.

Arzuaga wore a magenta jail jumpsuit in the courtroom and continued to look down at the table as the judge passed her sentence. She cried faintly and pushed up her glasses a few times during the hearing before apologizing to the Nordquist family for her actions.

"I want to say I'm sorry for what happened to Sam," Arzuaga said. "I can't take back what happened, although I wish I could. Sam really did love me and my kids."

As Ontario County Judge Kristina Karle listed out Arzuaga's sentence, Arzuaga rolled her eyes.

The crowd cheered and clapped. Some yelled, "F--- you. You're the devil." As court officers guided her out of the courtroom, Arzuaga blew her mother, Shirley Lee Morales, a kiss.

Almost everything about the crime defied logic and humanity, prosecutors and the judge said Tuesday during both women's sentencings.

"We all want to know why," Karle said before she sentenced Arzuaga. "Why was someone so good taken so tragically? Was it because Sam was everything you were not and will never be?"

Karle said everything she read, and everyone she spoke to, described Sam Nordquist as one of the kindest, most compassionate people.

"Did you look at him and hate him because of that kind of compassion and hope?" Karle said. Arzuaga did not look at the judge. "I'm sure that made you feel sick."

Even the women's pleas were unusual, the judge and prosecutors said. Both women pleaded guilty to all the charges against them and agreed to be sentenced to the maximum: life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The specter of a federal investigation has been hanging over all of the defendants. New York has no death penalty, but because Arzuaga and Quijano were charged with first-degree murder, they are eligible for the death penalty under federal law.

Prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney's office sat in the front row for both sentencings today.

Sam Nordquist's mother and sister asked everyone to focus on how good he was in his short life, instead of letting the gruesome way he died define him.

"Sam had the gentlest heart of anyone I've ever known," Linda, his mother, said as Arzuaga stood a few feet from her, looking down. "He saw the good in people. Even when they did not deserve it."

While prosecutors and the judge could offer little insight into why Arzuaga targeted Sam, Ontario County Chief Assistant District Attorney Sara Van Strydonck said Quijano had a motive of her own.

Quijano was Precious' ex-girlfriend and she was jealous, the prosecutor said. It's unusual to give evidence at a sentencing, she said, but she wanted to put on record how horrific the things Quijano did were.

"It's the depravity, the extremes that (Quijano) went to ensure that Sam was out of her way," Van Strydonck said.

She said Quijano and the others took multiple videos of themselves abusing Nordquist in Room 22 of Patty's Lodge. Those would have been shown to a jury if Quijano was put on trial.

Van Strydonck described one where Nordquist was in a corner with his face against a wall, blocked in by chairs, as the others berated him. Other videos showed Quijano calling him a two-legged dog. They kept Nordquist in a dog cage.

Van Strydonck also listed some of the incriminating texts Quijano sent to Arzuaga about Nordquist. At one point, she texted, "I can't watch you lay with someone else."

On Nov. 8, Quijano sent a text saying "I really want to smash his (Nordquist's) face into the f***cking wall. I hate him with a passion"

The prosecution said Quijano kept Nordquist trapped in the corner with chairs around him and "woke up every day and chose" to beat, stomp, hit and sexually abuse Nordquist.

William Gunther, one of Quijano's defense attorneys, argued that Quijano was also a victim of Arzuaga's continued abuse and had a difficult childhood growing up in foster care, with little family and going in and out of psychiatric hospitals.

Earlier, the judge referenced Arzuaga's long history of charges for domestic abuse in prior relationships. Just months before Nordquist arrived in Canandaigua, Arzuaga was charged in a domestic abuse incident involving Quijano.

In a statement written by Quijano and read by her defense attorney Kathleen Murante, Quijano attempted to apologize.

"Even if I try to explain why, it would only be an excuse," Quijano's statement said. "I will spend the rest of my life in prison and that's what I deserve."

For each sentencing, more than 70 people filled the historic courtroom. When each woman was led from the courtroom to a waiting Ontarior County Sheriff's deputy's car, the same supporters stood across the street on the grass and yelled perhaps the last words they'll get to say to the women.

"Rot in hell," "You're the devil," they shouted.

The judge ordered both Quijano and Arzuaga to stay away from Arzuaga's children, who were forced to participate in some of the abuse.

"I don't know anyone who cannot feel horrified for what those children had to go through," Van Strydonck said later.

Of the five others who were charged in Nordquist's death, Emily Motyka and Kyle Sage have both pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Patrick Goodwin, Kimberly Sochia and Thomas Eaves will go to trial in January if they do not plead guilty before then, Nobles said.

Nordquist's mother and sister described how his death shattered the small, close knit family.

They sometimes forget he's gone and pick up the phone to call him. They stand in the doorway and wait for him to come home. Linda Nordquist said she has not changed anything in her son's room since he left.

"He loved with his whole heart," Kayla Nordquist said. "Sam's life mattered."

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This article originally published at Courtroom erupts with relief, anger as Nordquist killers get life sentence: 'You're the devil!'.