Police testified on Monday that a man in Lansing, Michigan, found dead and burned outside a townhouse on May 5 was allegedly killed by two women who were seeking revenge over a stolen dollar bill.
In a hearing, Detective Ellen Larson told the court that Corey Dalton, the man found dead, was brutalized by Sharnae Cook, 27, and Marissa Gilbert, 29, after Dalton showed up at Gilbert’s apartment to purchase a cigarette for $1. Gilbert later found out that Dalton had allegedly stolen that $1 from her daughter’s room.
Gilbert and Cook, who Larson said was living with Gilbert at the time, according to court documents, then located and abducted Dalton, bringing him back to Gilbert’s apartment. The two women then allegedly beat him bloody, breaking a lamp over his head, hitting him with a belt and kicking him in the head.
Cook later told police that she and Gilbert “tortured him all night long,” according to court records, and she also confessed that Dalton begged for his life as they carried out his execution.
The two women, who are being tried for first-degree murder, held Dalton until Tuesday morning, when they decided to take him the apartment Cook had recently been evicted from, poured bleach down his throat, stabbed him and shoved him down a flight of basement stairs.
Cook told police the night of her arrest that Gilbert believed that Dalton was involved in the death of one of their friends and Dalton’s former girlfriend a year prior, whose body was found in the woods near Gilbert’s apartment.
Cook told officers that she and Gilbert then bought gasoline, and they returned to find Dalton already dead. They burned Dalton then and there, setting the apartment ablaze as well, according to Larson, who added that police acted on an anonymous tip that Gilbert killed someone with the help of another person.
Larson said that first responders also found a drill bit had been pushed into Dalton’s neck and head.
A search warrant resulted in authorities finding what Larson said appeared to be a video and photos of Dalton’s body on Gilbert’s phone. Larson said it was “obvious” that Dalton was badly injured in the photos and the video, in which Dalton could also be heard moaning in pain.
Both women are being held in the Eaton County Jail and are being represented by the public defender’s office, which did not respond to Newsweek for comment in time for publication.
MSN
