MAN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS TO LIFE FOR MURDERING GIRLFRIEND BY STRANGLING HER IN TUSTIN APARTMENT

For Immediate Release
Case # 05CF3372

 


August 1, 2008

Susan Kang Schroeder
Public Affairs Counsel
Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718

Farrah Emami
Spokesperson
Office: 714-347-8405
Cell: 714-323-4486

MAN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS TO LIFE FOR
MURDERING GIRLFRIEND BY STRANGLING HER
IN TUSTIN APARTMENT

SANTA ANA – A man was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison for strangling and murdering his 96-pound, sick girlfriend. Christopher Edward Nell, 50, Fullerton, was found guilty by a jury on July 10, 2008.

On the night of June 24, 2005, Nell murdered his girlfriend, 47-year-old Karen Taylor, by strangling her to death in her Tustin apartment. Nell was angry because Taylor refused to give him drugs and he was jealous because he thought Taylor was cheating on him. Nell beat her face and arms before strangling her. The victim, who suffered from several diseases, died from suffocation. After murdering his girlfriend and leaving her nude body in the bedroom, Nell called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that he had discovered Taylor dead in her bathtub. Responding officers found the victim’s dead body with multiple bruises and scrapes on her face.  The defendant had methamphetamine in his blood at the time of the murder.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Cameron Talley of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case. 

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