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A homeless sex offender who brutally raped and burned a professional poker player has been sentenced to life in prison, but said he will appeal the verdict.
Jeffery Morris, 62, was sentenced to life without parole on Thursday after being convicted a month ago of first-degree murder and felony murder for committing second-degree criminal sexual conduct.
It took the jury less than an hour to convict him for the murder of Susie ‘Susie Q’ Zhao, 33, in July 2020.
When given the chance to speak, he said he had “a lot to say” but would “[at] this time I’m not going to say anything.’
“I’ll wait until I come back for appeal and start over,” he told the judge.
The two met on July 12, 2020 at a motel in Waterford Township, where she often stayed. Evidence suggests that Zhao was brutally raped, damaging her genitals, tied with zip ties, doused in gasoline and burned alive.
Jeffery Morris, 62, (pictured Thursday) was sentenced Thursday to life without parole for the murder of Susie ‘Susie Q’ Zhao, 33, in July 2020
He indicated he would appeal the verdict, stating: ‘There is much I would like to say…I will wait until I come back for an appeal and start over’ (pictured in 2020)
Prosecutors took less than an hour to convict him for brutally raping, tying up and burning the professional poker player alive (pictured)
In a preliminary hearing in 2020, Deputy Examiner Dr. Andrew Hanosh told the court via teleconference that Zhao’s tongue was burned, her hair was singed, and smoke and soot were discovered in her airways and lungs, leading to the conclusion that she was alive when she was set on fire.
Nahosh estimated that Zhao had suffered burns to at least 90 percent of her body.
An autopsy also revealed extensive damage to the victim’s genitals from being ‘beaten’ with a fist or other object.
Her body was discovered by two men in a wooded area near Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area and it was so burned they thought it was a mannequin.
White Lake Police Department detective Thomas Sorasin testified that phone records showed eight calls between Morris and Zhao just hours before their July 12 meeting. CBS Detroit.
Both Morris and Zhao stayed at the Sherwood Motel in Waterford, and an FBI agent told the court that data from the cell tower showed the couple was traveling from the motel to a remote part of the recreation area.
Prosecutors said the crime played out Morris’s depraved sexual fantasy, including cruelty to Asians and slavery, the Oakland Press reported. Morris was previously convicted of a sex crime in 1989.
Morris told police in 2020 after his arrest that he had picked up Zhao on Watkins Lake Road and that they had checked into the Sherwood Motel around 9:26 p.m. on July 12.
The suspected killer said the couple briefly left the motel to buy alcohol at a party store before returning.
The two met at a Waterford Township motel on July 12, 2020, before heading to a remote area where her body was found.
Zhao then left the motel at midnight “taking all her belongings, including her cell phone, Morris told police.
However, cell phone records put Zhao’s cell phone at the motel until about 5 a.m. the next morning — the same time both cell phone records and surveillance footage captured Morris leaving the motel, court documents show.
The suspect then drove to the 3,745-acre remote park where he stayed for about seven minutes, WXYZ reported.
Police believe Morris tied up Zhao with ties and sexually assaulted her with a large object before she was “set on fire until she died.”
Morris was arrested July 31 after being stopped in his vehicle in Ypsilanti on orders from White Lake Township agents.
A search of his vehicle revealed a fitted sheet with visible bloodstains and a wooden baseball bat with a possible large bloodstain.
Several shoe prints, hair, fibers and other items with possible bloodstains and duffel bags with Morris’ identification in them were also found in the car, court records show.
Morris has a long history of violent and sexual crimes dating back more than three decades.
Morris was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Oakland County Circuit Court in 1989 and has multiple domestic violence charges, including pleading guilty to domestic violence in 2009.
At the time of Zhao’s murder, he was on probation for retail fraud.
“What happened to her was so unkind, so brutal and unnecessary,” prosecutor John Skrzynski said on Thursday.
A medical examiner estimated that Zhao had suffered burns to at least 90 percent of her body. Prosecutors said the crime played out Morris’s depraved sexual fantasy, including cruelty to Asians and slavery
Her boyfriend said the professional player “spoken modestly about her gambling success”
Born in China, Zhao moved to the US as a young girl and had moved from California to Michigan a month before her murder
Judge Martha Anderson said this case was “one of the most painful trials” she has ever endured and that she “cannot overcome the brutality of this murder and the needlessness of it all.”
“You took advantage of a person who was vulnerable, basically destroying everything she had achieved in her life,” she told him.
Zhao had moved to Michigan from Los Angeles in June 2020 to live with her mother and stepfather. She was also diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adult.
She was born in China and moved to the US at the age of eight.
Zhao started playing poker in high school and eventually found success in the professional leagues.
‘[Zhao] found a lot of strength in a deck of cards,” said her childhood friend Meredith Rogowski, speaking in court. She also said her friend “talked modestly about her gambling success.”