Man Sentenced to Prison for Stabbing and Burning Girlfriend’s Body

A man found guilty of the brutal murder of his influencer girlfriend, followed by burning her body and vehicle in a wooded area near Atlanta, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In addition to this life sentence, Eugene Louis Jacques received an extra 20-year prison term, ensuring he spends the rest of his days behind bars.

Jacques was charged with the horrific killing of 22-year-old Beauty Couch, whom he stabbed 81 times in August 2023. The Cobb County jury found Jacques guilty of multiple charges, including murder, arson, and aggravated assault, after a trial that commenced on May 19.

Beauty Couch, known to her 150,000 Instagram followers as Beauty Katera, was a celebrated roller skating influencer. Her tragic end shocked her fans and the community who followed her creative journey online.

The discovery of her body near her incinerated car in Austell, a city just west of Atlanta, Georgia, revealed the extent of the brutality. She had been burned and concealed under a heap of sticks and debris, a grim testament to the violence she suffered.

Her body was found near her burnt car. She was also burned and buried under a pile of sticks and debris in a wooded area of Austell, a city just west of Atlanta, Georgia.

Prosecutors tied Jacques’s location to the site of Couch’s body through cellphone location data, license plate reader records and a traffic ticket found just feet from her body that cited his name and the license plate number for his white Nissan Altima.

During the trial’s opening statements, Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green said that the victim’s body was located about 191 feet from her car.

Defense attorney Bryan Lumpkin unsuccessfully argued that there was no DNA evidence linking his client to the crime and that the investigation had unfairly only focused on Jacques because he was Couch’s boyfriend.

Eugene Louis Jacques was accused of fatally stabbing 22-year-old Beauty Couch 81 times in August 2023

On Friday, Couch’s boyfriend, Eugene Louis Jacques, was convicted of murdering the influencer and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole

According to Atlanta News First, Lumpkin conceded that Jacques was in the area but attempted to raise doubt by saying: ‘He’s in Austell. No doubt. He was there a lot because he went over to see Beauty all the time.’ 

Jacques was arrested in St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, which is about 450 miles away from Austell, two days after Couch’s body was discovered. 

Police had put out an alert for the now-convicted murderer’s license plate number, and he was pulled over by Louisiana police. 

In court, prosecutors showed body camera footage from the traffic stop in which Jacques can be heard telling an officer his name was Mykael Waters, an alias. 

‘I elected to run the name and date of birth, Mykael Waters, that was provided to me, during which time, I learned that that person did not exist,’ St Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective Chance Cloud testified on the witness stand. 

Detectives quickly determined that the man they had stopped was Jacques, and they searched his car, where they found clothing, bedding, towels, scissors and a map of the parish.

They also found receipts in the car for a Boost Mobile phone under his alias, as well as a completed job application for a local golf course under the false name.

Katie Garby, another detective with the St Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, testified that she found a burned piece of paper in the vehicle and a pair of bloody tennis shoes, though testing revealed that the blood belonged to Jacques.

Beauty Couch, 22, a roller skating influencer with around 150,000 followers on Instagram, was murdered in August 2023. Her body was found burned and stabbed 81 times

Evidence is seen at the scene where the woman’s body was found

Couch went by the handle Beauty Katera online. Her body was found buried under a pile of sticks and debris in a wooded area of Austell, a city just west of Atlanta, Georgia 

Couch’s mother described her daughter as a ‘sweet girl’ and said ‘she was a friend to everybody’  

Shortly after Couch was killed, her mother, Kimberly, told WSB-TV: ‘She was a sweet girl, she never bothered nobody. She was a friend to everybody.

‘She loved going skating. She loved going to work. She loved her clothes. She loved wearing her hair so pretty.’

Regarding Jacques, she said: ‘Bad vibe about him. Period. I want to really just look at him and say, “Why? WHY?” How could you do that to an innocent, beautiful person?’