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The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office announced that Jean J. Pierre, 50, of Montgomery Village, will spend 40 years in prison for the murder of his 41-year-old wife Nerlande Foreste in August 2019.
It took a jury just two hours to convict him following a five-day trial earlier this year.
"(Pierre) took the life of Nerlande Foreste without hesitation or concern for anything other than his own selfish desires," officials said. "When she disappeared, he pretended that she left him for another man despite a mound of evidence to the contrary.
"When he discarded her body in the dumpster, (he) erased any chance for full finality and closure for Nerlande Foreste’s family and friends.”
According to prosecutors, it is believed that Pierre stabbed and killed his wife inside their home in the 20000 block of Rothbury Lane in Montgomery Village on Aug. 21, 2019, then placed her body inside a shipping container that was carried out to a dumpster.
Pierre ultimately sealed his own fate days after the murder, calling the Montgomery County Police Department to file a missing persons report on Foreste, State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.
He stated that his wife's Volkswagen was still at the home they shared with a 15-year-old daughter, with her wallet and cell phone inside.
The daughter told investigators that she last saw Foreste on the day of hear death inside their family home, when she was reportedly leaving to go to a church event.
Pierre was supposed to pick up the teen from the event, but never showed, according to prosecutors. She attempted to call him multiple times, but there was never a response.
"Pierre stated that he would not be able to pick up (his daughter) and did not give a reason," according to officials, who noted that it was unusual because he was calling from the house at a time he was supposed to be playing soccer.
"Upon reaching the front door of her home, (the daughter) stated that it took several minutes of knocking before her father opened the door to let her in," they continued. "As (the daughter) began to walk towards her parents' bedroom, her father stood in front of the door."
Pierre later refused to allow the teen entry into the master bedroom, stating that Foreste was asleep and they could speak in the morning.
The following day, while Pierre was at work, the teen was able to get into the bedroom, which was "unusually messy" with bedsheets on the floor and multiple items out of place.
Officials say that the master bathroom was also "described as unkempt" with a broken towel hanger and soap dish.
On Aug. 23, 2019, Pierre was prompted by the teenager about where her stepmother was, and Pierre was unable to provide an answer before scurrying off to work. He later returned home with a carpet cleaner that was used in the master bedroom.
Concerned family members reached out to the daughter on Aug. 24, 2019, the same day Pierre filed the missing persons report for his wife.
Investigators say that Pierre had an inch-long scratch on his forearm, which he claimed was from a soccer game he never attended on the night of his wife's disappearance.
Pierre was taken to police headquarters by investigators, where he provided his an inconsistent timeline in the days before and after his wife's disappearance.
The only consistent part of his story was that his wife was "gone and never coming back."
During the interview, Pierre admitted to stabbing his wife, and taking her body to the dumpster in the early morning of Aug. 22, 2019.
The body has never been located.
"(Pierre's) actions have not only had an immense effect on the Foreste family and friends, but he also murdered his daughter’s step-mother in their shared home, lied repeatedly about her whereabouts to his daughter, forced her to report her mother’s disappearance to police, and eventually forced her to testify against him in a criminal trial," prosecutors said.
"It was heartbreaking to watch the daughter have to testify against her father, in his presence, about the death of a woman she loved and is still grieving the loss of."
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