Jury convicts man of strangling girlfriend, leaving body in motel

A Riverside County man was convicted Thursday of killing his girlfriend, whose body was found stuffed into a suitcase and left at a Poway motel, prosecutors said.

Joseph David Dorsey, 28, was found guilty by a jury of one count of first-degree murder, according to a statement from the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

Dorsey, whose sentencing date hasn’t been scheduled, could face up to 57 years to life in state prison.

In August 2012, prosecutors said, Dorsey checked into a Best Western motel in the San Diego County city of Poway but left without checking out. Motel employees went through the possessions left in his room, including a large rolling suitcase. Inside was the body of Christine Stewart, 47. Her 5-foot, 2-inch body had been jammed into the 3-feet-by-18-inch suitcase, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that Dorsey strangled Stewart at his Lake Elsinore apartment before heading to Poway.

Dorsey was arrested in October by Mexican law enforcement in the coastal resort area of Playas de Rosarito and returned to the United States.

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