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 MUSKEGON, Mich. - Jeffrey Willis will spend life in prison without parole for the murder of Rebekah Bletsch in June 2014. 
 
 Willis was convicted last month of killing Bletsch, a mother who had been jogging near her home after work. 
 
 Willis requested to go back to jail and not be present in the courtroom during his sentencing, avoiding statements from the family of Rebekah Bletsch. As Willis left the courtroom, he turned to the family and blew a kiss as the crowd called him a coward. 
 
 Bletsch's mother Debra Reamer told the court, "This coward should have been here to listen to us. We deserve our right to tell him exactly how we feel." 
 
 “I think that was very cowardly to walk out like that, and then to turn around to my family and blow a kiss?" said Jessica Josephson, Bletsch's younger sister, after the sentencing. "I think that’s his kiss of death. He’s going to get what he deserves in prison." 
 
 Left standing before rows of family and community members, Josephson, Reamer and Bletsch's sister Nicole Winberg addressed the court, also reading a letter from several of Bletsch's friend. 
 
 "Becky was everything a big sister should be," Josephson told the court. "I will never forget the time I was with my sister and I asked her, ‘Becky are you pregnant?’ She said 'no.' I told her I had a dream she was pregnant, a few days later Becky showed up at my door and said, 'your dream came true.' From that moment on that child became her world." 
 
 Winberg also called Willis to confess and return Jessica Heeringa's body to her family. 
 
 "I ask that he find it in himself to give the Heeringa family their daughter back," said Winberg. "They deserve a body to lay to rest. He claims that he’s not a monster, but his actions speak louder than words." 
 
 Willis was arrested in the spring of 2016 after an abduction attempt in Muskegon County. Evidence was found in his home and his vehicle to tie him to the Bletsch murder, including the Walther P22 gun in his van that matched ballistics in Bletsch's murder. 
 
 "[Willis] really is evil," said Nick Winberg, Bletsch's father with tears in his eyes. "We have to move forward. The bible says to keep conquering evil with good, and my family will. We are going to move forward and live good lives." 
 
 Willis will also be facing trial beginning March 6, 2018 for the murder of Jessica Heeringa, a mother who disappeared in April 2013. Her body has not been found. 

 
 
 
 
 MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — Jeffrey Willis was sentenced Monday morning for the murder of Rebekah Bletsch, but not before an unusual exit from a Muskegon courtroom. 
 
 Shortly after Willis entered the courtroom, he asked to leave. 
 
 Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson called the request “unprecedented,” but Judge William Marietti pointed out there is no law that requires Willis to be present for his sentencing. 
 
 “It’s unfortunate that he’s choosing this cowardly way of doing it. That certainly he’s been convicted, the family deserves the right to address the court which they intend to do and they also in some respects deserve the right to address the person convicted of killing their daughter and sister. But, that being said, whatever the court decides, the court decides,” said Hilson. 
 
 As Willis was being escorted out, he turned and blew a kiss to the people in the courtroom, some of which were calling him a coward. 
 
 >>App users: Watch Willis’ sentencing here. 
 
 Shortly after Willis’ exit Monday, Bletsch’s family tearfully read statements aimed at Willis, calling him a “coward” and “monster.” 
 
 “I’m angry that nothing I say today will bring my sister back. What I wouldn’t give to hear that laugh again,” Bletsch’s sister Nicole Winberg told the court. 
 
 “This coward should have been here to listen to us. We deserve a right to tell him exactly how we feel. And for him to walk out on us was just horrible. He doesn’t deserve anything,” added Bletsch’s mother. 
 
 Bletsch, 36, was shot and killed in June 2014 while jogging along a road near her home in Dalton Township, north of Muskegon. 
 
 “Becky is so much more than a jogger on the side of the road. She is a mother, a wife, a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, co-worker and a community member. She brought so much to all of us and to the world,” said Bletsch’s other sister, Jessica Josephson. 
 
 “Because of this monster, all we have left are memories of Becky and I won’t get to make new ones. It breaks my heart to think about all the big moments in our lives we won’t get to share with Becky,” she added. 
 
 Hilson also read a letter from Bletsch’s husband. 
 
 “Certainly today, his antics of leaving the courtroom speak volumes to me as to his cowardice,” Hilson said right before Judge William Marietti handed down the sentence. 
 
 The judge sentenced Willis to life in prison without the possibility of parole for felony first-degree murder as well as a consecutive three-year sentence on a felony firearm charge. 
 
 “Jeffrey gets to do whatever disgusting act he wants and in his small mind there’s nothing, in his small mind he thinks there’s nothing wrong with that. And he even thought he would get away with it. Well not anymore, monster. Your sick and perverted days have come to an end,” Josephson said. 
 
 “Knowing your only way out of prison is in a body bag brings a smile to my face,” she added. 
 
 The judge declined to comment during Willis’ sentencing because of the defendant’s pending cases in the kidnapping and murder of Jessica Heeringa and the attempted abduction of a 16-year-old girl. 
 
 Willis was arrested in 2016 after the teen told authorities he tried to kidnap her. The teen’s report to police broke the Bletsch case wide open. When investigators searched Willis’ minivan, authorities say they found the gun that killed Bletsch. 
 
 “Most of all, I would like to thank MJN. I can never explain to you how much my heart goes out to you. You are so brave. I believe my sister was watching over you that day,” Josephson said. 
 
 During Willis’ trial, investigators said that a sex toy and glove found in Willis’ van had Bletsch’s DNA on them. Investigators also explained the ballistics testing that matched the gun from the minivan to Blestch’s murder. 
 
 Last month, jurors convicted Willis of first-degree murder. 
 
 >>Inside woodtv.com: Complete coverage of the Jeffrey Willis investigation 
 
 In March, Willis will be back in court to stand trial for Heeringa’s disappearance and death. She vanished from a gas station in Norton Shores during her shift on the night of April 26, 2013. 
 
 Her body has never been found, but prosecutors say a file titled “VICS” found on one of Willis’ hard drives and containing a subfolder labeled with Heeringa’s initials and a code indicating the date of her disappearance is evidence she’s dead. Another subfolder in that “VICS” file was labeled with Bletsch’s name and a code for the date of her death. 
 
 Bletsch’s family also wants Willis’ cousin, Kevin Bluhm, locked up. Bluhm was arrested for lying to police and eventually pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact in Heeringa’s murder. Bluhm told police he helped Willis dispose of Heeringa’s body, then told investigators he lied. 
 
 Bluhm will be sentenced in January. 
 
 “As a family, we can’t sit back and watch him be released when he could have said something and saved my sister,” Josephson said. “To me, he’s just as guilty as Willis.” 
 
 The family made a plea to Willis to help get his cousin locked up for life. 
 
 “Now would be a really good time to think about giving up some real evidence to keep your cousin behind bars, too,” Josephson added. 
 
 They asked that Willis give up the location of Heeringa’s remains. 
 
 “I ask that he find it in himself to give the Heeringa family their daughter back. They deserve a body to lay to rest,” Nicole Winberg said. 
 
 –24 Hour News 8’s Heather Walker contributed to this report. 
 
 >>App users: Interactive timeline of Willis investigation 
 
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– As Jeffrey Willis left a Michigan courtroom prior to sentencing Monday, he blew a kiss to the family of the woman he murdered three years ago, MLive reports. In what the Muskegon County prosecutor calls an "unprecedented" move, Willis chose to return to jail rather than hear his sentence—or the statements of Rebekah Bletsch's family, according to WOOD. "This coward should have been here to listen to us," Bletsch's mother, Debra Reamer, told WXMI. "We deserve our right to tell him exactly how we feel." After Willis left the courtroom, Reamer and Bletsch's sister Nicole Winberg gave statements and the county prosecutor read a letter from Bletsch's husband. Willis was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Sheriff Michael Poulin took it upon himself to make sure Willis didn't start that sentence without hearing from Bletsch's family. He recorded their statements on a CD, and officers transporting Willis to prison on Wednesday played the recording for him five times on the way. "I don't find it that important that Jeffrey Willis heard what the family had to say, but that the family knew he heard what they said," Poulin tells MLive. Bletsch's sister Jessica Josephson agrees. "It brings a little bit of peace, a little bit of comfort," she says. Bletsch, a mother, was shot while jogging after work. Authorities believe Willis wanted to sexually torture her but killed her when she wouldn't get in his van. He will return to court in March to stand trial in the 2013 death of another mother whose body hasn't been found.