'She was ripped from our lives': Tammy Welch's father gives impact statement

In August of 1984, 10-year-old Tammy Welch was raped and murdered at her apartment complex off 103rd Street.

The little girl and her sister were playing outside less than an hour before she was killed.

Her 8-year-old sister would make the gruesome discovery, finding her sister's lifeless body in the courtyard.

Welch's shorts were bloodied, and she had been strangled to death.

Investigators questioned family and neighbors, including James Leon Jackson, now a father of 10.

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Jackson lived a few doors down. A five-time convicted felon, he denied any involvement in her case, saying he had been sleeping at the time.

Jackson was interviewed by police twice in 1984.

Then in 2002, investigators revisited the case. Jackson voluntarily submitted a DNA sample.

Ten years later, DNA  was sent to a lab and in 2013, a partial DNA profile was identified and matched Jackson.

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Prosecutors say Jackson admitted to the crimes to cellmates while incarcerated.

In November of 2018, a jury found Jackson guilty in Welch's murder. He now faces the death penalty.

On Wednesday, Welch's father, who was a Navy sailor and deployed at the time of her death, read a victim impact statement, listing the moments Jackson took from their family: missing out on a first dance, the prom and her wedding.

Michael Welch broke down, and jurors looked on with tears in their eyes as he explained the pain of Tammy Welch's loss remains today.

Jackson's own daughter took the stand. She says he was present throughout her life and did what he could for her and her siblings.

A jury will soon recommend if Jackson should spend the rest of his life in prison or be sent to death row.

A death penalty recommendation will have to be unanimous.

Cox Media Group