Police have arrested a 60-year-old man on charges he murdered a 33-year-old professional poker player. The defendant, Jeffrey Morris, was formally charged and arraigned Tuesday from a single bed after suffering an unspecified medical issue earlier within the day. he's accused of killing victim Susie Zhao, who died almost a month ago, consistent with Click on Detroit.
Zhao’sgh body was found burned on the morning of July 13 in Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area, officials said. The alleged motive remains unclear. Investigators initially said they were looking into whether Zhao’s life as a poker player played into her death, but sources cited by Click on Detroit said that’s likely not the case. These sources reportedly said she and therefore the killer met at an area hotel. Her phone records lead investigators to Morris, investigators said.
Morris was arrested on Friday but wasn't identified publicly until Tuesday.
A local couple who previously took the defendant in said they kicked him out after he became violent.
“That’s sick, man,” Jeffrey Maybee said about the claim that the defendant murdered Zhao.
Morris “answered a billboard from me to rent a basement from me,” the defendant’s former landlord Dawn Carr told Fox 2 Detroit. “I rented to him for about four months. He appeared like a true creeper, and that i had to urge him out of here, so I evicted him.”
The defendant faces a count of first-degree premeditated homicide. a neighborhood Court clerk in Oakland Co., Mich., told Law&Crime that Morris had no attorney of record as of Wednesday afternoon. Morris is scheduled for a probable conference August 18.
This new arrest is another chapter within the defendant’s criminal history. Past convictions reportedly included violence , assault with intent to rob while armed, and failure to suits convict reporting duties. Morris is within the Michigan convict registry because he was convicted in 1989 of criminal sexual conduct within the interrogation (force or coercion).
[Mugshot of Morris via Michigan convict registry; screengrab of Zhao via Live at the Bike]
NEWS SOURCE: LAW And CRIME button
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