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Inset: Joseph Davis (Ramsey County Jail). Background: Home in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he allegedly killed his girlfriend (Google Maps).
A Minnesota man was sent into a rage after he learned his girlfriend was romantically involved with another man, causing him to stab her to death, cops say.
Joseph Davis, 34, stands accused of second-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Christine Morris at their home in St. Paul, cops said. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, St. Paul police officers early Friday conducted a welfare check at a home in the 300 block of Edmund Avenue after Davis called a family member and said he killed Morris and that he was “sorry.”
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Cops entered the home and heard a dog barking and child coughing. They found the child — the 2-year-old daughter of Davis and Morris — sitting on a couch in the living room. In an upstairs bedroom they found Morris’ body covered by a blanket. She had suffered several stab wounds to her head, neck, chest and back, the affidavit said, with sharp force injuries piercing her lung, kidney and spleen.
Morris’ friends who were interviewed at the scene apparently said she told them if she or her daughter ended up dead, Davis was responsible. Davis had at least three domestic violence arrests dating with Morris as the victim, per the affidavit. The suspect’s ex-girlfriend also reportedly had a restraining out against Davis and feared he would hurt her.
Officers also spoke with a friend who was with Morris the night before the slaying and relayed that Morris said that Davis accused her of cheating on him. Morris arrived home around 11 p.m. and texted the friend she had made it home safely, cops noted.
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After police recovered the victim’s phone at a nearby park, they set their sights on Davis, eventually locating him at an apartment in Minneapolis. The SWAT team coaxed Davis outside. The tenant at the apartment said she met Davis about a month prior on a dating app and they had been talking. She said Davis contacted her on Friday morning and said he was running from the cops and asked her if he could stay at her place. He refused to tell her why he was in trouble, the affidavit said.
After giving Davis his Miranda warning, detectives said they told Davis that they found Morris and she had been “pretty messed up.”
When asked how it happened, Davis said Morris “had been f — ing him over for 5 years by cheating on him, manipulating him, and lying to him,” detectives wrote. He also claimed he had set up a recording device in the home which captured Morris having sex with someone on Saturday. Davis said it was a married man.
The defendant allegedly said an argument turned physical when he confronted her about lying.
“Davis said, ‘I should have never did that to her … That s — was brutal. I—I definitely feel bad,”” cops wrote.
He reportedly said the stabbing started on the bed and then the victim rolled off. Davis allegedly watched Morris “take her last breaths” before he covered her body with a blanket.
“She suffered, bro, she definitely suffered,” Davis allegedly told detectives, adding that the stabbing wasn’t planned.
After he “did the s—,” he allegedly lay down with the baby for a half hour or so until she fell asleep, and then he left the home. He drove to the park and threw Morris’ cellphone out the window, according to the affidavit.
Cops arrested Davis and took him to the Ramsey County Jail where he is being held on a $2.5 million bond. His next court date is scheduled for June 17.
