Sex offender sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder of professional poker player
A Michigan judge sentenced a sex offender last week to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal 2020 murder of a professional poker player, court records show.
Judge Martha Anderson handed down the sentence Thursday to Jeffery Morris in Oakland County Circuit Court for the July 2020 murder of Susie Zhao, 33, a professional poker player from Waterford Township, Michigan, NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit reported.
A jury found Morris guilty of first-degree murder and felony murder in the commission of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to court records.
Zhao's body was found badly burned around 8 a.m. on July 13, 2020, a week before police identified her, near Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, WDIV reported.
Morris and Zhao met at the Sherwood Motel in Waterford Township, 2 miles from where Zhao’s mother lived, WDIV reported.
It reported that the motel owner said that Zhao checked in on July 9 and checked out on July 11 and that Morris checked in to the same room on July 12. The owner reported never having seen the two together.
Police arrested Morris on July 31, 2020, having tracked him down through cellphone records, WDIV reported.
Morris has a long criminal history, including a 1989 conviction for third-degree criminal sexual conduct, court records show.
Zhao, who was known as “Susie Q” on the poker circuit, won at least $187,441 from poker, including $73,805 at a 2012 World Series event, according to the World Series of Poker website.
“I proficiently play high stakes poker for a living. Its [sic] kinda weird because I’m a girl,” Zhao’s Twitter profile still says.
She was born in China and emigrated with her mother to the U.S. when she was around 8 years old, and she was raised in Michigan, The Oakland Press reported, adding that she was also diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adult.
During the trial, The Press reported, evidence showed Morris bound Zhao's wrists with zip ties before he doused her with gasoline and set her on fire while she was alive. There was also evidence of serious damage caused by sexual assault.
Prosecutors presented evidence from Morris' cellphone records and web search histories showing searches for brutality against Asian women and slaves, as well as sexual encounters in remote, wooded areas like the one where Zhao's body was found, the newspaper reported.
At the sentencing, Anderson, the judge, called the trial "one of the most agonizing" of her career, according to The Oakland Press.
“I cannot get over the brutality of this murder and the needlessness of it all,” she said.
“You took advantage of an individual who was fragile and basically destroyed everything she had accomplished in her life," she told Morris.
When Anderson gave Morris the opportunity to speak, he declined to comment, the newspaper reported.
“This time, I’m not gonna say anything,” he said. “There’s a lot I’d like to say. This time I’m not gonna say anything — I’ll wait till I come back for an appeal and begin again.”
Meredith Rogowski, who spoke at the sentencing hearing on behalf of Zhao's family and said she was her oldest friend, described Zhao as a person who was "equally childish and innocent as a young woman" who "found a lot of power in a deck of cards," The Press reported.
Zhao's murder, Rogowski said, was “a dark scar on an otherwise spectacular existence.”
“Susie’s murder caused so much pain, and her loved ones will never recover," she said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
