Man Pleads Guilty To Killing Teen Girlfriend's Dad
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) -- A Maryland man pleaded guilty Friday to stabbing his 14-year-old girlfriend's father to death during a scuffle after the father found the man in his daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night.
Authorities said Jason Bulmer, now 20, plotted for months with the teen to kill her father, Dennis Lane, 58.
New details about the killing emerged as Bulmer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Howard County Circuit Court. Lane's daughter, Morgan Arnold, who is now 15, also was charged as an adult with murder in the slaying last May.
Prosecutors say Lane struggled with Bulmer after finding him in his daughter's bedroom in their Ellicott City home around 4 a.m. Bulmer stabbed Lane several times as Lane's fiancee and his daughter looked on. Lane was able to subdue Bulmer, giving his fiancee a chance to take away the knife. Afterward, Lane walked to his bedroom, where police found him dead.
Bulmer wore a gray jumpsuit in court and glasses that were taped at one corner. He only spoke to answer his lawyer's questions. Lane's fiancee, Denise Geiger, sat in the back of the courtroom with friends and family. She left in tears after the brief hearing.
Bulmer's defense attorney said Bulmer suffers from a learning disorder and that he functions at a seventh-grade level. He's currently taking anti-depressant medication.
Bulmer told police Arnold wanted her father dead "because she was sick of him."
Prosecutors say Bulmer, who was 19 at the time, and Arnold laid out the plan to kill her father in text messages and on Skype over the course of several months.
The plan shifted from cold to lewd. Prosecutors said Arnold told Bulmer in messages to be silent when entering the home. At one point, Bulmer messaged Arnold saying he planned to rush into Lane's bedroom "ninja style" and stab him and Geiger in the throat.
Prosecutors said the two also talked about having sex after the killings.
The night of the slaying, Bulmer, armed with a butcher knife, walked for about two hours from his Ellicott City home to Lane's, prosecutors say. Bulmer slipped in through a screen door left unlocked by Arnold, police said.
Bulmer is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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