Background: News footage of James Barnes-Morris in court for his plea hearing on Dec. 29 (WMTV). Inset: Brooke Strattan (Madison Police Department).
A Wisconsin man who told his friends how hard it was to hide his girlfriend's body in a pond has pleaded guilty to killing her.
James Barnes-Morris, 26, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide on Monday, admitting that he was responsible for taking the life of his girlfriend, 24-year-old Brooke Strattan, in the fall of 2024. Law&Crime previously reported that Barnes-Morris was the last person seen with Strattan on the morning of Sept. 30, 2024. Days later, Strattan's body was found in a retention pond.
According to court documents, the couple fought in front of several friends a few days before Strattan went missing. Strattan went home with another male friend and expressed her fear that Barnes-Morris "was truly going to kill her."
Police alleged in a search warrant at the time of Barnes-Morris' arrest that hours after he was seen walking with Strattan, he showed up at a friend's house. Detectives said that he told the friend, "I had to get rid of her," he "needed more bricks and rope," and that "the weeds made it hard." When police spoke to the friend, he said that Barnes-Morris was wet and had bloody scratches on his legs.
Barnes-Morris was found hiding in a friend's basement on Oct. 3, 2024, the day Strattan's body was found. He had her phone and credit cards.
The Dane County District Attorney's Office charged Barnes-Morris with first-degree intentional homicide with a domestic abuse modifier and first-degree reckless homicide with a domestic abuse modifier. The intentional homicide charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement. Local NBC affiliate WMTV reported that Barnes-Morris faces up to 60 years in prison at sentencing.
Comments