A man suspected of killing his former girlfriend and setting her body on fire in front of her six children has turned himself in to police last night.
Tyrone Levoid Harts, 38, surrendered to Los Angeles police and was taken to the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside County where he was booked on a homicide charge.
Harts is being held on $1 million bail and has been accused of killing Brandi Marie Morales shortly before 1am on February 22 at her Moreno Valley home.
Morales’s six children are aged between six and 15 and police officers called to the scene found her body on a staircase.
She had been set on fire but four of her younger children had doused the flames before help arrived, according to a detective’s court declaration.
Family members told investigators that Morales, 35, had at least a three-year relationship with Harts, but they recently separated and he had moved out of her home, according to the declaration.
Family members claimed Harts sent Morales odd text messages in recent days.
Morales’s seven-year-old son told investigators that he spoke with Harts by telephone before going to bed some hours before the killing, which was their usual custom.
On the recording, Harts allegedly said he went to the home and assaulted Morales but was interrupted when her eldest son entered the room, so he fired a shot to scare the boy off, then panicked and shot Morales, according to police.
A pathologist determined she died from a wound to the abdomen.
Harts apparently told his friend on the recording that ‘people on the outside may think this was a crime of passion, but it was not,’ according to the declaration.
