The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend and setting her Pasadena apartment on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Corey Lavelle 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.
In December, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down the defense’s claim that a judge improperly denied 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, who was arrested in December 2011, confessed to a Pasadena police detective that he had strangled the 27-year-old woman, according to the appellate panel’s Dec. 16 ruling.
Green told police that he fought with Donnelly and put his hands on her neck after another woman with whom he was also romantically involved had called and texted him about Donnelly phoning her, according to the eight-page opinion.
Green told police that the woman stopped moving and he left the apartment 20 minutes later, but returned a few days later, poured gasoline over her body and then lit a piece of tissue with a lighter. He subsequently told investigators that he did not intend to hurt Donnelly and described her death as an accident, according to the ruling.
— City News Service