Murderer Aubrey Trail exposes his own lies before being sentenced to death

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Four years after Sydney Loofe was murdered and dismembered, her killer received his sentence.

Aubrey Trail was sentenced to death.

“The state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder of Sydney Loofe demonstrates extreme depravity by the ordinary standards of morality and intelligence,” Judge Vicky Johnson said.

The courtroom in Saline County was packed Wednesday, with Loofe’s family sitting in the front row.

Before Judge Johnson rehashed the facts of the case and read the death sentence, Trail got a last chance to make a statement.

In it, he spoke directly to the family of Sydney Loofe, who was just 24 when she was killed.

“Almost everything I’ve said before was a lie unless it benefitted me,” Trail said.

He said Sydney did not die by erotic asphyxiation during a consensual encounter, which is what his attorneys alleged. He also said he did not lure Sydney to his apartment intending to kill her.

“I lured her there to try and pull her into our group. But once I sat Sydney down and explained to her our criminal activities and group sex I knew I had made a big mistake.”

He said Sydney freaked out, so he zip-tied her hands, brought her into a bedroom, and strangled her with an extension cord.

“The truth is I killed her because of her reaction to what I had told her. I had no doubt she’d tell people what I told her.” Trail said. “She did nothing but reject my lifestyle and threaten to expose it and I killed her for it.”

The judge told Trail, the attorneys and the Loofe family that Sydney’s murder showed exceptional depravity, meeting the requirements for the death penalty.

Trail’s attorneys said the death sentence wasn’t a surprise, but his statement was.

“I did believe his testimony at trial was true but I do think deep down he wanted to give some solace for the Loofe family,” Defense Attorney Joe Murray said.

An appeal will be filed automatically as it is in every death penalty case, but Trail’s attorneys say they don’t believe he will fight his sentence beyond the first appeal.

“To be quite frank I could care less what you do to me here today,” Trail said in his statement.

Neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the Loofe family commented on the outcome.

Trail’s co-conspirator, Bailey Boswell will be in court at the end of the month for her three-judge panel where the prosecution will try and prove she too should receive the death sentence.

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