Texas Man Confesses to Murder After Watching 'Passion' Movie

Texas Man Admits to Murder After Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A Texas man confessed to killing his pregnant girlfriend, whose death was originally ruled suicide, after watching the controversial film "Passion of the Christ", reports said.

Dan Leach, 21, walked into a sheriff's office in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, to admit he made the killing of 19-year-old Ashley Wilson in January look like suicide, police told US media.

"It's a very strong movie," Lieutenant Jim Pokluda of Fort Bend County' sheriff's department, told the Los Angeles Times. "It would make a man think twice about any sin that he has committed."

The Times said Leach went this month to see Mel Gibson's movie about the final hours of Jesus Christ. On March 7, he went to church, announced that he needed to confess a crime and drove himself to the sheriff's office.

Leach was charged with first-degree murder, according to an indictment released Tuesday. But because the indictment is a non-capital charge, prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty, according to Pokluda, commander of Fort Bend County's criminal investigations unit.

Pokluda said Leach confessed to strangling Wilson, with a cord and then staging the death to make it appear she had committed suicide. The body was found in her apartment on January 19.

Police said investigators first thought Wilson had hanged herself and a medical examiner ruled it was a suicide.

Leach allegedly killed the woman because their relationship had ended and he did not want to raise the unborn child, police told newspapers.

 

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