• discussions >
• Front Room

Maschusetts Man pleads guilty to exotic dancer murder

niceass

Man pleads guilty in killing

Friday, January 23, 2004

Associated Press







STAMFORD — A Massachusetts man surprised authorities Wednesday by pleading guilty to murdering his girlfriend, a graduate student and stripper who was stabbed to death inside her apartment.

Randy Morris, 26, of Fall River entered the plea in Superior Court during a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence in the murder of 34-year-old Christina DeFelice.

"He decided he will dispose of the case against my legal advice," said his public defender, Susan Hankins. "He wanted to do this. . . . He regards it as a moral decision."

Morris and DeFelice had met at Beamers, a strip club where she was a topless dancer, and dated for several months, according to police. He was an ex-Marine who was working odd jobs, and she had just completed her master's degree in marriage and family therapy.

The two had an on-again, off-again relationship for several months, which included fights and threats, police said.

In the days after the killing, Morris was found with DeFelice's credit cards, prosecutor Jim Bernardi said. Morris told police that he stole the credit cards and tried to have money wired to him from her credit card the day after the murder.

but that didn't work, Bernardi said.

Stamford police officers obtained search warrants for Morris' residence and car, where they found a bloodstained knife, bloodstained clothing and blood smears, Bernardi said.

After he was arrested, Morris made two videotaped confessions to Massachusetts and Connecticut authorities, Bernardi said. In both interviews, Morris told police the couple argued in her apartment May 11 and he lost his temper and reached for a knife, Bernardi said.

I, like everybody else on the investigation team, was shocked that he pled out at this time," said Sgt. Paul Guzda, lead investigator on the case. "But we are happy."

The murder charge carries a penalty of 25 years to life. Hankins said there was no plea-bargain. The judge scheduled sentencing for March 25.