STEUBENVILLE — It took jurors a little more than an hour Wednesday to decide 28-year-old Jason Twiley was guilty of the brutal murder of his girlfriend and then trying to torch her Maxwell Avenue home to get rid of the evidence.

The victim, Steubenville native Brittany Littlejohn, 32, was beaten, shot and killed the weekend of Aug. 10, 2019. Police found her naked body Aug. 12, wrapped in a sheet and stuffed, face first, into a trash can, then wheeled into a neighbor’s garage and shoved behind an old mattress.

Witnesses had told the jury three separate fires were set in Littlejohn’s home.

Twiley, a Chicago native, was convicted of murder with a firearm specification as well as the aggravated arson.

Immediately after, Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzeze Jr. said Twiley must serve a mandatory three years for the firearm specification, then eight years for the arson and life in prison for Littlejohn’s murder, though he’d be eligible for parole on the murder charge after serving at least 15 years.

The sentences must be served consecutively and in that order, meaning he must finish one before starting the next. In all, Twiley will have to serve at least 26 years before he’s eligible for parole.

His sentencing fell in line with Prosecutor Jane Hanlin’s recommendation that the harshest penalties should be imposed.

“The whole block could have gone up (in flames),” she said. “There’s not a single mitigating factor when the court looks at the seriousness of his actions. The only inference you can make is that he had to burn it down … to get rid of the evidence.”

Afterward, Hanlin said she was pleased with Twiley’s conviction, admitting revisiting the events leading up to Littlejohn’s murder “made me sad.”

“I know that family,” she said. “When you get to the end of the trial it starts to sink in, that she’s somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister and the mother of two children. Thirty-two years was not long enough.”

Twiley’s attorney, Gary Levine of Cleveland, said he “respects the decision of the jury, they heard the evidence.”

“My client had a right to a jury trial, and he availed himself of that right,” he noted.

LIttlejohn’s sister, Brandy Ross, delivered a victim impact statement on behalf of her family, sobbing as she told Bruzzeze, “My sister was my best friend.”

“I lost my brother a month before Jason killed my sister,” she said, telling the judge how their mother’s murder had adversely impacted her children. “Jason took a queen, somebody everyone looked up to. My sister was a great person, a phenomenal person. I still don’t understand why he would kill her, why he beat her the way he did and put her in a trash can.

In addition to his prison sentence, Twiley was also told when and if he’s released, he’ll have to register as an arsonist, be banned from having or using guns and be in a community control program.

He told Bruzzeze he plans to appeal, though that will be handled by a different lawyer. Twiley had tried to fire Levine at the close of proceedings Monday, but with the trial already under way, the judge denied his request.

Twiley told the judge he wanted a court-appointed lawyer, but insisted he wanted to choose his own. The judge told Twiley that would only happen if Twiley, himself, hired – and paid – an attorney, and appointed Steubenville attorney Eric Rezske to represent Twiley on appeal.