A jury found a 31-year-old man guilty of killing a woman he was in a relationship with and her unborn child – the first time a person has been convicted in Montgomery County, Maryland, of murdering someone who is unborn.
In 2022, Torrey Moore, the father of 26-year-old Denise Middleton’s unborn child, shot Middleton inside the apartment they shared in White Oak and left her there for almost two months, prosecutors said.
Video evidence showed Moore grabbing Middleton in the lobby of the building and pushing her toward the elevator.
“The story is awful,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said. “There is no way to slice it. This is a terrible case.”
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Moore left Middleton on the floor of their apartment while he traveled to North Carolina and California, prosecutors told the jury. Along the way, he searched Google for how to move a dead body without being seen.
For weeks, Middleton’s decomposing body remained in the apartment until police got a tip Moore may have been involved in the killing of a 61-year-old convenience store clerk, prosecutors said.
Police used a no-knock warrant to enter his apartment and found Middleton’s body under a blanket.
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“And he’s sleeping in the dining room,” McCarthy said. “Next to him is the handgun.”
That gun was linked to the deaths of the clerk, Middleton and her unborn child, whom she had named Ezekiel, prosecutors said.
“I miss my baby and never get the chance to meet my grandson,” said Middleton’s father, Dennis Middleton.
“Just to know that we were robbed of that and even robbed of giving her a proper burial because of the state and condition of her body is just disheartening,” said Taylor Middleton, the victim's cousin.
Moore was convicted of killing the clerk in a separate trial.
Prosecutors will ask for consecutive life sentences.
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