Man who pleaded guilty to killing Savannah Spurlock sentenced to decades in prison
The man who pleaded guilty to killing Savannah Spurlock, a Madison County mother who went missing in early 2019, was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison.
David Sparks, 25, pleaded guilty to murder, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering earlier this month. He was charged after Spurlock’s body was found in a shallow grave on a Garrard County farm that belonged to Sparks’ parents. A brief sentencing hearing was held virtually Thursday morning. Sparks did not speak, according to court officials.
In his plea agreement, Sparks admitted that he acted alone when he intentionally caused Spurlock’s death in the early morning hours of Jan. 4, 2019. He also admitted to wrapping her body in plastic bags and transporting her from his Lancaster home to his parent’s Fall Lick home, where he buried her.
Spurlock was a 23-year-old mother. Her disappearance gained national attention after police released surveillance images of her leaving a Lexington bar. The images showed two of the three men who left with her. The search for Spurlock went on until July, when investigators found her body.
After Sparks pleaded guilty, Commonwealth’s Attorney Andy Sims said Sparks could have been sentenced to 20 to 50 years or to life in prison. With any of those sentences, he would be eligible for parole in 20 years.
“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 after Sparks’ plea. “I knew from the beginning he killed her, and it was important for me that he stood in court and admitted it.”
A detective testified earlier about the case against Sparks. He was one of the three men captured on surveillance video leaving the Lexington bar with Spurlock. After Spurlock and the men left the bar, they drove to Sparks’ house on Price Court in Lancaster, 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.
Sparks initially told police that he’d slept on the couch after the other two men left and Spurlock had slept in his bed, Chavies said during the hearing. Sparks told investigators 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. Sparks claimed that he’d told her before going back to sleep. He told investigators that Spurlock was gone the next time he woke up.
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 11:40 AM.
