Jeffery Morris and Susie Zhao.
A judge handed down the mandatory sentence for a 62-year-old man convicted of horrifically murdering a 33-year-old poker player. Jeffery Bernard Morris must spend life in prison without parole for killing professional poker player Susie “Susie Q” Zhao.
Jurors on Oct. 7 displayed no hesitation in finding him guilty. They took less than an hour to return a verdict. The jury believed prosecutors in Oakland County, Michigan, who said Morris carried out a depraved fantasy in which he sexually assaulted Zhao (leaving damage to her genital area), tying her up with zip ties, dousing her with gasoline, and burning her alive, according to The Oakland Press.
The defense pointed toward unknown male DNA found during the investigation and argued that authorities failed to properly look into tire tracks at the scene, but prosecutors linked Morris and Zhao through phone evidence. Locations included the home of Zhao’s parents, the hotel where Morris rented a room, and the scene where Zhao died. Authorities also noted that Morris’ DNA was found at an autopsy.
Prosecutors said cell phone and internet search evidence connected to Morris showed brutality against Asian women and slaves, bondage, and also sexual encounters in remote, wooded areas like the one Zhao was found at in White Lake Township, Michigan on July 13, 2020, according to The Press.
Charges were first-degree murder as well as felony murder with an underlying charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Morris signaled an appeal.
“This time, I’m not gonna say anything,” Morris reportedly said at the sentencing hearing. “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.”
As things stand, however, he’s a guilty man.
“I cannot get over the brutality of this murder and the needlessness of it all,” Judge Martha Anderson said.
According to statements in court, Zhao was an accomplished professional poker, who moved out to California. But she returned to Michigan to live with her mother and stepfather in Waterford Township. Zhao was diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adult.
“You took advantage of an individual who was fragile, and basically destroyed everything she had accomplished in her life,” Anderson said.
Friends noted the change in her behavior but did not know at the time that it was mental illness.
“She acted like Susie, but just more blank or like subdued, if you will,” friend Michelle Lagrou said, according to WXYZ. “But to me, I took it as possible drug usage.”
Childhood friend Meredith Rogowski spoke on behalf of Zhao’s family, saying Susie’s mother could not make it because she was in China caring for her own mother, according to the Press.
Zhao’s death shouldn’t define her, Rogowski said. Instead, it was “a dark scar on an otherwise spectacular existence.”
She spoke of her friend’s schizophrenia diagnosis and how this condition left Zhao vulnerable, according to WXYZ.
“That’s why we think it’s important to talk about this now because there are still people out there who may be suffering in silence and their friends and family don’t know, and because of that, they may be putting themselves at increased risk for this type of violence,” she said. “It’s important for family and friends to be there, but it really falls on society collectively to do more because it shouldn’t be just the responsibility of her friends, or the responsibility of her mother who doted over her. But taking care of somebody who is severely mentally ill is a full-time job. I just don’t think that we currently have the capacity to support the need.”
Prosecutor John Skrzynski lamented the horrifying nature of the murder.
“What happened to her was just so unkind, so brutal and needless,” he said, according to the Press.
Morris landed on the Michigan sex offender registry because of a 1989 conviction for criminal sexual conduct in the third degree by force and coercion. He has also been convicted of charges including domestic violence, assault with intent to rob while armed, and failure to comply with sex offender reporting duties.
Aaron Keller contributed to this report.
[Mugshot of Morris via the Michigan sex offender registry; screengrab of Zhao via Live at the Bike.]