Last September, Christine Morris told a friend that if she or her toddler daughter ended up dead or missing, Joseph Davis would be the person responsible.

The 33-year-old and Davis were in a relationship and had a 2-year-old daughter together.

On Friday, police and prosecutors say Davis killed Morris in the couple’s St. Paul home. Police found their daughter physically unharmed in the house.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Davis, 34, on Monday with second-degree intentional murder, not premeditated.

Officers responded to the home in Frogtown about 5:15 a.m. Friday to check a person’s well-being. Davis had called a family member, saying he’d killed Morris, “he was sorry” and he’d left the couple’s 2-year-old in the home on Edmund Avenue between Virginia and Farrington streets, according to a criminal complaint.

Police talked to another woman who previously had two children with Davis. She said he called her about 6:55 a.m. and left a message saying he killed the mother of one of his children, and he wanted to see their two children before he turned himself in. The woman told police Davis is “violent” and she still had an order for protection against him.

“The woman said she had told her lawyer that she feared Davis would kill her or someone else at some point,” the complaint continued.

Davis was sentenced in May 2023 and January 2024 for gross misdemeanor domestic assault against Morris. He was sentenced in June for violating a domestic abuse no-contact order involving Morris.

After Morris was killed, a friend showed police text messages that Morris sent her in September, in which she wrote about Davis being responsible if anything happened to her, the complaint said.

Friends of Morris remembered her Friday as “a great woman, a great mother, a great cook.” She had her own catering business, Chrissy’s Authentic Jamaican Food.

Suspect arrested in Minneapolis

Police called Davis early Friday and he answered, but hung up when the caller identified himself as an officer.

Then, police “developed information” that Davis was at a Minneapolis apartment and the Minneapolis Police SWAT team carried out a warrant and arrested Davis “who refused to voluntarily exit the apartment,” the complaint said. He was booked into the Ramsey County jail early Saturday. The renter of the apartment in the 2800 block of 31st Avenue South told police she met Davis on a dating app and they’d been talking for a month. He contacted her Friday, saying he was running from police and asked if he could come to her place; he didn’t “want to discuss his situation” or what kind of trouble he was in, according to the complaint.

Morris’ friend told police she was out with her Thursday evening, and Davis was messaging Morris throughout the evening and accusing her of infidelity. Morris messaged her friend around 11 p.m. to let her know she’d made it home.

Following his arrest, Davis told police he suspected Morris of lying and confronted her. He said he stabbed Morris and it wasn’t planned.

“I should have never did that to her. … That (expletive) was brutal. I — I definitely feel bad,” the complaint quoted him as saying to police. He said he watched her take her last breaths. “She suffered, bro, she definitely suffered,” the complaint said he also told police.

Police found Morris in an upstairs bedroom, covered by a blanket. The couple’s daughter was on a couch in the living room.

An autopsy determined Morris had multiple stable wounds to her body.

Davis made his first court appearance in the case Monday and bail was set at $2.5 million. An attorney for him couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

2 of 3 homicides in St. Paul this year were domestic assaults, charges say

Morris’ homicide with the third of the year in St. Paul; there were eight at this time last year.

The three St. Paul homicides have been stabbings and two have been cases of domestic violence, according to criminal complaints.

The husband of Sefiya Churiso Datu, 29, is charged with killing her in St. Paul in February while their baby was nearby. He told police that they argued after he accused her of being unfaithful, said the complaint in that case.

Violence Free Minnesota, which has been tracking domestic violence homicides in the state for 35 years, wrote on social media Monday “there have been countless situations such as these.

“Yet to the best of our recollection, not a single claim of infidelity made by men before killing their female partners was ever credible nor substantiated — and even if they were, this would never excuse murder nor violence,” the post said.

Help is available in Ramsey County and St. Paul through the St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project 24/7 by calling 651-645-2824. Throughout Minnesota, the Day One crisis line can be reached around the clock by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.