‘I knew he ... killed her.’ Man pleads guilty in death of KY mom Savannah Spurlock
The man charged in the death of Madison County mother Savannah Spurlock has pleaded guilty and likely faces a 50-year prison sentence, according to court records.
David Sparks, 25, was charged last year with murder, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering after Spurlock’s body was found on his parents’ farm in Garrard County. He pleaded guilty to the charges Monday, Commonwealth’s Attorney Andy Sims confirmed.
“I think justice was served, and most importantly for our office, and I think and hope for the family, was that for the longest time everyone thought this case was a big mystery, but it wasn’t,” Sims said. “I knew from the beginning he killed her, and it was important for me that he stood in court and admitted it.”
Spurlock, 23, was missing for months before her body was found in a shallow grave on the farm. Her disappearance gained national attention after police released surveillance video of her leaving a Lexington bar with three men.
One of the men caught in the Lexington video was Sparks, and after Spurlock and the men left the bar, they drove to Sparks’ Garrard County home on Price Court, Kentucky State Police detective Tye Chavies testified at a court hearing last summer. At some point, the other two men left the Price Court home.
Initially, Sparks told police that he’d slept on the couch after the other two men left and Spurlock had slept in his bed, Chavies testified. Sparks had said that Spurlock woke him up the next morning to ask the address of the home they were at, as if someone was coming to pick her up, and that he’d told her before going back to sleep. He told investigators that Spurlock was gone the next time he woke up.
But after Spurlock’s body was found on Sparks’ family’s farm months later, investigators noticed that her body had been buried with a rug similar in type to one that was in Sparks’ home, Chavies said. They later learned that Sparks had texted his sister the day after Spurlock was last seen, asking where he could buy a new rug like one she’d previously got him for his room. Detectives also found evidence of blood consistent with Spurlock’s DNA in Sparks’ home.
The plea deal states that Sparks admitted to intentionally killing Spurlock and that he acted alone, according to court documents. The plea agreement described what happened as follows:
“During the early morning hours of January 4, 2019, at 118 Price Court in Garrard County, Kentucky, the defendant, acting alone, intentionally caused the death of Savannah Spurlock. After so doing, he bound her legs and wrapped her body in plastic bags. He later transported her body to (Fall Lick) and buried her in the yard behind that residence. He did so with the intent to elude apprehension for the murder and to impair the evidence’s availability in any future proceeding pertaining to that crime.”
Sparks is set to be sentenced on Dec. 17, and it is recommended in the plea agreement that he be sentenced to 50 years in prison. By law, Sparks could have been sentenced to 20 to 50 years or to life in prison, Sims said. With any of those sentences, he would be eligible for parole in 20 years.
Sims said his office is satisfied by the case’s outcome and hopes that it’s a stepset toward closure for Spurlock’s family.
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 9:01 AM.
