Jurors heard shocking testimony this week from a former Twentynine Palms Marine on trial for first degree murder.
“I’m no longer scared to tell the truth. People have to know what I did,” Christopher Lee testified at his trial.
Despite having entered a ‘not guilty’ plea, Lee testified in court before a jury that he strangled his 19-year-old lover, who was married to a fellow Marine from Twentynine Palms.
Under questioning by his attorney, Lee confessed to killing Erin Corwin at the edge of an abandoned mine, near the base, on June 28, 2014.
“I came up behind her and I put it (the garrote) around her neck…I just kept choking her,” he said. “I pulled and I pulled…I freaked out … I killed her. … I dragged her to the edge of the mineshaft and I pushed her in.”
Erin’s body was discovered two months later, in a remote area near Joshua Tree Nat’l Park. Friends had told investigators that she and Lee were having an affair and that Corwin was possibly pregnant with his child.
Lee also testified that he went into a rage after finding out Corwin molested his six-year-old daughter. However, those allegations haven’t been confirmed yet by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Dept., Fox News reported.
Corwin apparently thought she was meeting Lee in the desert for what would be “a romantic evening with a marriage proposal.” Instead they reportedly got into an argument because Lee allegedly wanted to attempt suicide outside the mine.
He was apparently battling depression since discovering his daughter was being molested and also after finding out he would not be deployed again.
Erin and her husband were neighbors with Lee and his wife and the couples were friends before the alleged affair started. The two men were Marines stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.
Closing arguments were set to begin Wednesday.
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