Graham, NC-- "I just take pity on him because God's wrath is way worse than the justice system," Caylee Harrel said outside an Alamance county courtroom soon after her mother's killer was sentenced Thursday afternoon.

A judge sentenced Robert Foust to life in prison without parole after he confessed to killing Tamara Liner in 2008 and went on to kill Caylee's mother, Jana Michelle Morton in February 2009.

The family not only saw Robert Foust in the courtroom Thursday afternoon, they addressed him before the judge handed down the life sentence.

It wasn't exactly closure - but it was the best loved-ones could hope for after three years of waiting to see who was responsible for the crime.

Foust, a convicted serial killer, stole just a few glances at his victim's family as he walked into the courtroom, shackled.

Other than a "yes" or "no" to the presiding judge, the repeat violent offender said nothing else during his 40-minute sentencing.

"I needed my mother to be here but she wasn't given a chance," read from a prepared statement, addressing the court.

Harrel had a lot to say to the man who murdered her mother when she was a teenager -- and her brother was 7-years-old.

"I just wonder if this man ever thought about if she had a family before he did this to her," Caylee read on.

The district attorney says Foust knew Caylee's mother.

The two were arguing when he killed her. Foust then dumped the body in a shallow grave behind a house.

"It's been difficult but we're getting through because we know that she's now in a better place," Caylee said about life since her mother's death.

It took three years but investigators gathered enough evidence to make Foust confess. He also admitted killing 49-year-old Tamara Liner months earlier in 2008.

As relatives and friends cried around her, 20-year-old Caylee remained unmoved during the sentencing.

"I don't believe that he should get the satisfaction of seeing me cry," she later explained, adding that life without parole was just the sentence Foust deserved.

"I think the death penalty is the easy way out. Having life in jail he gets to sit in jail and think about all the horrible things he's done."

The family says they are just glad to have this chapter in their lives closed.

Caylee said she won't spend another minute thinking about Foust because, "he doesn't deserve my time."
Foust was already serving a rape sentence in Scotland County.

He will serve his life term without parole alongside that sentence.

 

 

Alamance Co. District Attorney