A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to the "heinous murder" of his girlfriend in her Edina apartment, then driving the body to Louisiana and burning it in a shipping container, a series of acts that mean a 20-year prison sentence.
Joseph S.A. Porter made his admissions in Hennepin County District Court in connection with the death of 27-year-old Cristina Prodan on Jan. 4 of last year.
Porter's conviction for second-degree unintentional murder drew a term of 20 years and 10 months from Judge Holton Dimick. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Porter will serve about 13¼ years in prison and the balance on supervised release. Had Porter been convicted of the original charge of second-degree intentional murder, his maximum sentence would have been roughly twice what he received.
"When I read the criminal complaint, I thought I was watching a television movie of atrocious actions of a horrible person," Dimick said during sentencing. "I couldn't believe how you treated this lady. I couldn't believe your age."
Under state sentencing guidelines, the recommended term was from 15 to 18 years. However, because Porter admitted to not calling authorities immediately after killing Prodan, hiding the body and leaving her mother in anguish, Porter agreed to the longer term.
"This was a heinous murder, and it took police and our office months to put together the evidence necessary to bring about this guilty plea," County Attorney Mike Freeman said. "But we were not going to let him get away with just 15 years for his despicable actions, and we were successful in getting him the additional time he deserves."
The sequence of events, from Edina to New Orleans and back north again, is spelled out in the criminal complaint, Porter's statements in court and a victim impact statement from Prodan's mother:
Porter and Prodan met on Facebook and had a stormy relationship for the three months he lived in her apartment in the 4100 block of Parklawn Avenue while he was married to a man in Arkansas. Others in the apartment building had called police many times because of the noisy arguments between them.