SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Prosecutors said Thursday they will not seek the death penalty against a man accused of strangling a female acquaintance after watching her have sex with two other people, then stuffing her body into a suitcase and putting it out with the trash.
Joshua Matthew Palmer, 33, will face life in prison without parole if convicted of murder and special circumstance allegations of murder during a rape, murder during sodomy and murder during a rape by an instrument in the death of 21-year-old Shauna Haynes.
Trial is scheduled Aug. 21 in the courtroom of Judge Joan Weber.
A witness, Chelsea Shea, testified at a preliminary hearing last year that she had drinks with Palmer at a bar on April 4, 2016, and agreed to go back to his room at the Chadwick Hotel on A Street. She and Palmer were having sex when Haynes arrived with a man named Anthony Kern, Shea said.
The witness testified that she, Kern and Haynes eventually had sex together, but Palmer just "stood there," then "told us to leave."
Shea testified that she left with Kern and asked Haynes if she wanted to come along, but Haynes said she wanted to stay with Palmer.
A few hours after the early morning sexual encounter, Palmer called 911, saying his girlfriend was missing, a detective testified. When contacted, Palmer had red knuckles on both his hands, according to the detective.
Police got a search warrant and seized video files from Palmer's cell phone, showing an unconscious Haynes.
In another clip, Palmer is heard to say, "I'm sorry I love you, but I can't watch you having sex with somebody else. God I'm sorry."
Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle alleged that Palmer - who worked with Haynes at the Spaghetti Factory restaurant - stuffed her body into a suitcase and threw it out with the garbage.
The morning of April 6, a guest at the hotel in the 600 block of A Street found the suitcase containing the victim's body near a row of trash cans alongside a parking area at the rear of the three-story building.
Palmer was arrested two days later.
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