Friend of murdered LA model testifies on whirlwind romance with suspect

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The friend of a woman who was murdered in 2023, and whose body was discovered in a refrigerator in Downtown LA, told the court that she spent nearly all of her last four days with an out-of-towner.

Kiersten Dossett testified Friday that she introduced her friend, 31-year-old Maleesa Mooney, to Magnus Humphrey, a 41-year-old from Minnesota and the brother of another friend of hers. What followed, Dossett said, was a whirlwind romance.

“They were getting very close, very quickly,” Dossett said. “I would say they were obsessing over each other.”

As far as she knew, they never left each other’s sight for the next four days, until Mooney — a estate agent and part-time model, as well as the sister of Guyanese pop singer Jourdin Pauline — disappeared.

Dossett’s testimony was part of the third day of Humphrey’s preliminary hearing. At the end of the hearing, Superior Court Judge Drew Edwards will decide if there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Humphrey is currently in jail, awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to charges of murdering and torturing Mooney.

Eventually, Dossett said, she grew frustrated with her friend’s affair. Both worked as escorts. And Humphrey hadn’t paid for a thing — not drinks, not groceries and not any of the cocaine that Humphrey consumed on a daily basis, according to Dossett.

“At that time I felt like … she was sleeping with him and not getting anything in return,” Dossett told the court. Dossett advised her friend to demand that Humphrey buy her a $500 gift card to Best Buy. But over text message, Mooney replied: “He doesn’t have it.”

It wasn’t just money that worried Dossett, she said. The last night they spent together, at a nightclub, she felt that Humphrey was acting unnaturally possessive. He hovered around her, Dossett testified, never letting Mooney go more than a few feet away.

“He put his arm around her,” Dossett recalled. “I didn’t feel like it was in a loving way. It was more of a control movement. I felt like it was more of an ownership grab.”

“That’s my girl,” Dossett remembers Humphrey saying. Mooney appeared unbothered by the gesture, telling Dossett later: “I’m gonna marry him.”

“I’d never seen Maleesa get very close to a man before,” Dossett added.

But the next day, Mooney’s mood changed. According to text messages sent on Sept. 7, 2023, the day after their night out at the club, Mooney thought that Humphrey was overstaying his welcome.

“She told me that she wanted him to leave,” Dossett testified. “She said she was scared.” Dossett said she offered to call security to have Humphrey removed from the building.

Eight days later, Dossett learned that Mooney was dead. She texted her friend, Humprey’s brother.

“Your brother is not safe,” she wrote, according to text messages read in court. “I love him like he was cool.”

The prosecutor asked for clarification: did she mean that Humphrey was in danger? Or that Humphrey was dangerous? After a long pause, Dossett replied: “I believe i meant that he wasn’t safe to be around.”

On Thursday, the court heard testimony from a woman who previously dated Humphrey for several years. She said that after they broke up in 2009, he savagely beat her for three hours. Prosecutors said the crime bore similarities to the violence inflicted upon Mooney: both were whipped. Both had their hair pulled out. Both were confined in a closet for some time.

Prosecutors have yet to tell the court about the physical evidence that links the crime to Humphrey. That could change when the preliminary hearing resumes on Tuesday afternoon, when a criminologist from the county medical examiner’s office will retake the stand.

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