Police found Joseph Davis’s 2-year-old daughter alone downstairs and her Christine Morris dead in an upstairs bedroom, then Davis admitted to the crime.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The first person officers found inside the St. Paul home was a 2-year-old girl sitting in the living room. She was alive and physically unharmed. Upstairs, police found her mother, Christine Morris, dead in a bedroom. The girl’s father, Joseph Davis, has now pleaded guilty to Morris’ murder.
Davis, 35, admitted to intentional second-degree murder in the May 2, 2025, killing of Morris, 33. Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence him to 480 months, or 40 years, in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 26. The plea resolves the question of criminal responsibility without a trial, but it leaves the length of Davis’ sentence for the court to decide.
The toddler became central to the initial police response because officers had reason to believe she had been left behind. According to the probable cause account, Davis contacted a family member after the killing and said he had killed the mother of his child. He also indicated that the couple’s young daughter remained at the residence. That information sent St. Paul officers to the house in the 300 block of Edmund Avenue for a welfare check during the early morning hours.
Inside, officers heard a dog and indications that a child was present before locating the girl. They then searched the rest of the house and went upstairs. Morris was found beneath a blanket in a bedroom. She had sustained multiple sharp-force injuries. Medics pronounced her dead, and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that her death was a homicide. The child did not require treatment for physical injuries, according to the public accounts of the case.
What happened inside the home before officers arrived was later described in statements Davis gave homicide investigators. Police said Davis acknowledged attacking Morris during an argument. He told detectives he believed she had been involved with another man and said he had been angry over what he described as years of dishonesty. His accusations were his own claims and were not presented by authorities as independently proven facts about Morris.
After the stabbing, Davis told investigators, he stayed in the bedroom as Morris died and covered her body. He then went to the couple’s daughter and lay down with her for roughly half an hour until she went to sleep, according to the charging account. Davis said he later left the home. By the time officers arrived, the girl was awake in the living room with no adult caregiver present while Morris remained upstairs.
Police were not starting their investigation without a direction. Davis’ communication with a relative had already identified him as the person who said he killed Morris. Officers also learned that he contacted a former partner and discussed wanting to see other children before turning himself in, according to charging coverage. Those calls helped investigators establish that Davis had left St. Paul and prompted efforts to locate him.
Another piece of the search involved Morris’ phone. Police recovered it away from the house near a park. Davis later told investigators that he had thrown the phone from his vehicle after leaving the residence. Officers eventually tracked him to a Minneapolis apartment. The woman living there said she had met Davis on a dating app about a month earlier and that he contacted her while saying he was trying to evade police.
A Minneapolis SWAT team responded to the apartment and took Davis into custody. After investigators advised him of his constitutional rights, Davis spoke about the killing. He expressed regret in comments documented by police and admitted the stabbing. He also described his actions after Morris was mortally wounded, including remaining with her, covering her and putting the couple’s daughter to sleep before leaving.
The investigation also revealed that the violence did not arise in a relationship with no previous police or court history. Published charging reports said Davis had multiple prior domestic-violence convictions involving Morris. He had also violated a domestic-abuse no-contact order. One former partner had obtained a restraining order against him and told investigators she had feared he might seriously hurt her or someone else, according to the probable cause account.
Friends of Morris provided additional context. One friend said Morris had been receiving accusations from Davis about infidelity the night before she was killed. Morris was with the friend before returning to the Edmund Avenue house and sent a message around 11 p.m. confirming that she had arrived home safely. Another friend showed police a message Morris had written months before the homicide warning that Davis should be suspected if she or her daughter ever died or disappeared.
Those messages became part of the investigative record alongside Davis’ admissions, the location of Morris’ cellphone and the physical evidence at the house. At the time, prosecutors used that evidence to support a charge of intentional second-degree murder. Davis was initially entitled to contest the accusation at trial. His guilty plea now establishes his responsibility for the offense without requiring jurors to decide among the state’s evidence.
The daughter whom officers found that morning also appears prominently in remembrances of Morris. A fundraising page described Morris as a loving mother, sister and friend and said her daughter was a central part of the legacy she left behind. A later Minnesota memorial account said Morris operated a Jamaican food catering business and worked in real estate. The account described her as a woman remembered by friends for her love, strength and smile.
Public reporting has not identified the child by name, and there is no reason to do so in reporting on the criminal case. What is established is that she was 2 years old when her mother was killed, that she remained in the house after Davis left and that officers found her physically unharmed. The homicide therefore carries consequences beyond the criminal sentence still awaiting Davis, including the loss of the child’s mother.
The Oct. 26 sentencing will be the next major court proceeding. Prosecutors are seeking 40 years, the maximum term identified for the offense in coverage of the plea. A judge will decide the sentence. As of Oct. 19, that hearing remains pending, so no report stating that Davis has already received the requested 480-month term would be accurate.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.