Eric Tavulares Gets 40 Years

Last July, Eric Tavulares strangled his 18-year-old girlfriend, Lauren Aljubouri.

Today, Tavulares was sentenced.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A 19-year-old man who strangled his girlfriend last summer today asked a judge for the maximum sentence and got it.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen sentenced Eric Tavulares to a minimum of 40 years in prison to be followed by 20 years of supervision. Tavulares had pleaded guilty in November to second degree reckless homicide in the death of Lauren Aljubouri, 18, his childhood sweetheart.

Tavulares dismissed earlier reports that put some of the blame on the movie "Natural Born Killers" – a film he had seen many times and that the couple had watched the evening of the attack. The film is about a couple who had survived traumatic childhoods, then became lovers and serial killers.

"I need to be punished," Tavulares said. "I believe this is best for me…I recommend the maximum sentence."

Conen, who noted that he rarely gives the maximum sentence, called it the most difficult case he has had in 12 years on the bench.

Conen said he does not know if the murder that occurred July 19 in the couple's east side apartment was the result of a decision to commit murder then suicide or if it was the result of a psychotic episode. "I have a hard time believing that the defendant woke up in the middle of the night and had some demon inside him that made him choke the life out of Lauren Aljubouri," Conen said.

If Tavulares snapped and that caused him to murder the young woman he described as his best friend, it would be more frightening, the judge said.

"I can't help but be afraid of what will happen if he is released some time in the near future," Conen said.

It's not unusual at sentencing for a murderer to express remorse, but it's surprising to me that Tavulares himself recommended that he receive the maximum sentence.

This 19-year-old will be spending most of his adult life in prison. Not a bright future.

Actions have consequences. Tavulares threw away his life when he took the life of Lauren Aljubouri.

He's getting what he deserves.