Twenty-eight years.
It’s how long the family of Sharon Trimble had to wait for justice.
She was raped and found strangled to death in Plano in 1989.
The case was cold until a newly-named cold case detective entered the picture.
“My family tells me what type of character she had, what type of loving mother she was,” said Trimble’s only son Jacoby as he displayed family photos on the coffee table in his Dallas apartment.
Jacoby was just three years old when his mother died. He says he has no memories of her.
At age 31, he says growing up knowing his mother’s killer had never been caught was a pain he woke up with every day.
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Hope replaced pain two years ago when Plano Police Detective Elizabeth Spillman gave the cold case new life. Spillman was named Plano’s cold case investigator in 2014. The Trimble case was her first homicide cold case.
“I received a call from the victim’s sister just kind of wanting an update, seeing what was going on. I pulled the file and started looking at it and realized that there was a possibility for it to be solved,” she said.
A man named Temmie Cooley was a suspect. He was already in prison for another murder. Cooley was Sharon Trimble’s co-worker at the time of her death.
“I spent about eight-and-a-half hours interviewing the defendant,” Spillman said.
Spillman says conflicting stories and DNA evidence taken from a rape kit in 1989 linked Cooley to the Trimble case.
Cooley was charged in 2015 with Sharon Trimble's murder.
Late last year, a Collin County jury heard the case.
“The first jury was a mistrial,” Spillman said.
“I remember me storming out the courtroom just in non-belief all the facts was here. We all stayed there and like what do we got to do next. It’s not over,” Jacoby said.
The case was re-tried again in April with an older jury.
The verdict: Guilty.
“I just dropped on my knees and thanked God and told my mother I love her and uh, and I could just feel her by me. You know, I could feel her with our family,” Jacoby said.
“To be able to see the relief that finally someone was paying for her death, it was amazing,” Spillman said.
Though he may not have any memory of his mother, Jacoby says she is still his inspiration.
He says she’s the reason he became a Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy.
“It made me want to go out and protect this community and people who can’t protect themselves,” he said.
His story, he hopes, helps other families find justice and brings them patience to persevere.
“Just don't give up, never give up,” he said.
If he hadn't been convicted in Sharon Trimble's death, he would have been eligible for parole in 2019.
Cooley was sentenced to another 80 years in prison.
