A state appellate court panel on Tuesday rejected an appeal from a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend and then setting her Pasadena apartment on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.
A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down the defense’s claim that a judge improperly denied Corey Lavelle Green’s last-minute bid to act as his own attorney during a hearing in which he was ordered to stand trial for Maria Donnelly’s killing.
Donnelly’s body was discovered Sept. 30, 2011, after firefighters were called to a fire at an apartment building at 59 S. Meridith Ave. Green was arrested in December 2011.
The appellate court justices noted that Green confessed to a Pasadena police detective that he had strangled the 27-year-old woman.
Green told police that he fought with Donnelly and put his hands on her neck after another woman with whom he was also in a relationship had called and texted him about Donnelly calling her, according to the eight-page appeals court ruling.
Green told police that the woman stopped moving and he left the apartment 20 minutes later, returned a few days later with gasoline to try to cover up what he had done, poured gasoline over her body and then lit a piece of tissue with a lighter, according to the ruling.
He subsequently told police that he did not intend to hurt Donnelly and described her death as an accident.
Green was convicted in October 2013 of second-degree murder, arson of an inhabited structure and first-degree residential burglary, and was sentenced the following month to 36 years to life in state prison.
— City News Service