A Maryland man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend and lived with her corpse before killing a store clerk received three life sentences this week.
Torrey Damien Moore, 34, received three consecutive life sentences. According to Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy, Moore likely won't be eligible for parole until he is in his 90s.
McCarthy said that based on surveillance video, the last time Moore's girlfriend, Denise Middleton, was seen alive was in early October. McCarthy said that Moore murdered Middleton, who was eight months pregnant and left the area for a while.
McCarthy said that while Moore was a way, he made internet searches about how long it would take for a body to start to smell. He also researched possible defense strategies, including what an insanity defense would entail.
Eventually, Moore returned to Maryland and stayed in the apartment with Middleton's corpse. In December, McCarthy said Moore shot and killed Ayalew Wondimu in a convenience store located almost directly across the street from where Moore was staying. Moore was identified as a suspect from security camera footage.
Police then executed a search warrant at Moore's apartment. They found him sleeping, with the handgun used in Wondimu's murder lying nearby.
"However that's not where the story ends," McCarthy said. "That's where it became, tragically, worse than they ever could have imagined because there was a terrible smell that was obvious to the officers who came in to execute the no-knock search warrant."
Originally published on Lawyer Herald
