A Florida man who said a woman at his home had committed suicide allegedly staged the incident and in fact killed her, according to police.
Officers in Jacksonville apprehended Malcolm Jordan Douglas, 28, and charged him with second-degree murder on June 23.
In a June 24 statement, Jacksonville Police Department said: "On October 22, 2022, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Homicide Unit was called to investigate a suspected suicide." The department added: "However, after conducting an autopsy, the Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide."
In 2021, there were 1,468 recorded homicides in Florida and that the state had a homicide death rate of 7.4 per every 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Douglas had initially told first responders he found the woman, who was not identified, and that she was not breathing, according to a Jacksonville arrest report obtained by local TV station News4Jax.
Detectives returned to the apartment with Douglas and found broken glass on the floor in the living room and kitchen, as well as shards in the kitchen trash can. Detectives saw fresh scratch marks on Douglas' arm and discovered his fingernails were bitten down.
Douglas allegedly told police that the woman had never shared any suicidal comments with him. The medical examiner then performed the autopsy and determined the woman had been strangled.
The State Attorney's Office hired a crime-scene expert to examine the evidence, according to News4Jax, and agreed with the medical examiner that the woman's injuries were inconsistent with suicide. The expert said the woman had been strangled and that the scene had been staged to look like a suicide.
In Florida, second-degree murder is determined when a person commits either murder with a depraved mind or accomplice felony murder, according to Hornsby Law Firm.
The Central Florida practice added: "The crime of Second Degree Murder is a First Degree Felony in Florida and punishable by up to life in prison, life on probation, and a $10,000 fine.
"Second Degree Murder is assigned a Level 10 offense severity ranking under Florida's Criminal Punishment Code.
"Absent grounds for a downward departure sentence, a judge is required to sentence a person convicted of Second Degree Murder to a minimum sentence of 16¾ years in prison, but may also sentence the person up to the statutory maximum of life in prison."
The Hornsby Law Firm added that a person who uses a firearm to commit second-degree murder must be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Newsweek has contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for comment via email.
