On Friday, a D.C. woman was sentenced to 24 years in prison for tricking a closeted married man into inviting her into his hotel room, where she robbed and murdered him.

Jamyra Gallmon, 21, pled guilty to fatally stabbing attorney David Messerschmitt at the Donovan Hotel in February. She told authorities she originally targeted by answering an ad he placed on Craigslist seeking to meet other men for sex.

When she entered his unlocked hotel room, though, the two fought and she stabbed him more than seven times in the chest, groin, arm and back.

Initially, authorities were unsure why Messerschmitt, who lived in the District, would have booked a hotel room—and why his wallet and credit cards were still in the room.

Some evidence—including condoms, lube and an enema—pointed to a "hookup murder." Gallmon was linked to the crime after police traced an email from her to Messerschmitt that included a photo of a male torso that she used to trick the 30-year-old attorney into inviting her up for sex, believing she was a man.

She insists she never intended to kill Messerschmitt, but when he fought back she had a flashback to an earlier assault, triggering an violent reaction. Gallmon stabbed her victim multiple times in the back, prosecutors stated, even after Messerschmitt was face down unconscious on the floor.

The case received a great deal of press because of its brutality, Messerschmitt's sexuality, and the fact that his firm, DLA Piper, is known worldwide.

“It is an extremely difficult thing to have to explain to you how Ms. Gallmon’s vicious and cruel actions that resulted in my husband’s death have affected me,” Messerschmitt's widow, Kim Vuong, wrote in a letter to D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan.

“I loved my husband very much. We were as close as anyone could imagine. My best friend and the person that I revolved my entire life around is gone.”

Judge Susan J. Dlott, with whom Messerchmitt once interned, was one of dozens of others who wrote Judge Ryan. She claimed the defendants "had the worst motivation: to prey on a gay man and steal money from him because he probably would not want the publicity of reporting a crime."

Jamyra Gallmon, Judge Dlott added, "blotted out a life that had so much promise and goodness in it.”

h/t: Washington Blade