Prosecutors in Arizona are seemingly ready to dismiss charges against a man accused of murdering his girlfriend because he said he thought she was a demon.
Desiree Serpas, 28, was found shot to death inside the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel in downtown Phoenix last July.
Her boyfriend Dominque Jackson was arrested for her killing, telling security guards inside the hotel that Serpas was ‘a demon’.
Jackson was initially charged with the second-degree murder of Serpas, the mother of his two children, but prosecutors are now looking to dismiss the original charge.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told AZ Family that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Jackson for her murder.
Despite DNA in the case, experts said it was too hard to prove who in the hotel room was responsible for firing the fatal shot.
Another woman, whom the couple had meet at a bar earlier in the evening, had been present inside the hotel room at the time of the killing.
Tom Ryan, a Phoenix-based attorney who is not affiliated with the case, told the outlet: ‘There was plenty of reasonable doubt in this particular case.
‘There’s inconclusive evidence on who pulled the trigger, how it happened, was it done with malice and intent?’
Desiree Serpas, 28, was found fatally shot inside the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel in downtown Phoenix last July
Her boyfriend Dominque Jackson was arrested for her killing, telling security guards inside the hotel that Serpas was ‘a demon’
Court records show that Jackson had gone down to the hotel lobby naked and told security there was demons in his hotel room.
He is said to have told them ‘she was a demon’ before asking security to check his room.
There was gunshot residue particles on his shirt and similar residue on the other woman in the room.
After confirming he was a guest at the hotel, security called the room’s phone where a woman answered and told them everything was fine.
Security then went to the room where they found Serpas lying naked on the floor and unresponsive.
The unidentified woman reportedly told security that the person lying on the floor was actually Jackson and not a woman.
When questioned by police, the woman said she and her friend had been at the hotel for a pool party but had tickets for the wrong day so went to a bar instead.
It was at the bar that they met Serpas and Jackson, with the couple then asking the two women back to their hotel room.
The women told officers that after her and her friend agreed her memory was ‘patchy’.
Despite DNA in the case, experts said it was too hard to prove who in the hotel room was responsible for firing the fatal shot
Court records show that Jackson had gone down to the hotel lobby naked and told security there was demons in his hotel room
She told investigators that she only remembered going into the hotel and later waking up and finding whom she thought was Jackson on the floor.
Officers spoke with the woman’s friend who said the two got separated from her friend before they left the bar.
An autopsy found that Serpas died from a gunshot wound to her back that had also injured her neck.
The gun found in the room had ‘significant DNA’ from both Jackson and Serpas on it, and it was also registered in Jackson’s name.
During his first court appearance last year, the judge in the case gave Jackson the lowest bond for murder that the court had ever set, setting his bail at $50,000.
His attorney at the time had said the case was ‘devoid of probable cause’ and there was ‘barely any evidence of a homicide’.
The state has motioned to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning if new evidence does come to light they can refile the murder charge.
