Jacksonville man gets 20 years in prison after killing girlfriend, burning her body

Joseph Porter
Joseph Porter

An Arkansas man received a 20-year prison sentence after admitting to strangling his girlfriend to death in Minnesota and then driving her body to a New Orleans junkyard, where authorities found it burning in a shipping container.

Joseph Porter, 26, of Jacksonville pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional murder Tuesday after admitting in a Minnesota court to killing 27-year-old Christina Prodan. Porter agreed to a higher prison term due to the “particular cruelty” in hiding Prodan’s body causing anguish for her mother, prosecutors in Minneapolis said.

“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,” Hennepin County Prosecutor Mike Freeman said in a statement. “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.”

Court records show Porter was living in Arkansas before meeting Prodan in 2017 on Facebook and moving into her suburban Minneapolis apartment despite being married to a man in Little Rock.

Police said they received frequent calls from neighbors concerned about loud fighting they heard, including a call the day Prodan went missing.

The frequent fighting eventually led to a restraining order that Porter violated. On. Jan. 4, 2018, Porter came to the apartment, and he later fatally choked Prodan during an argument, according to court records.

Authorities said Porter then shoved Prodan’s body into a suitcase and drove her more than 1,200 miles away to a New Orleans scrap yard, where he poured several gallons of gasoline in a shipping container, placed Prodan's body underneath old tires and set it on fire.

Arkansas State Police arrested Porter a week later in Jacksonville. His jail photo shows apparent burns on his face that, police said, happened as he was lighting the fire.

Porter initially faced a steeper murder charge in Minnesota that would have nearly doubled the maximum penalty. He also faced federal kidnapping charges in Little Rock and Minneapolis, but those charges were dropped last year.

Martha Holton Dimick, the Minnesota judge presiding over the case, called Porter’s actions “atrocious.”

“When I read the criminal complaint, I thought I was watching a television movie of atrocious actions of a horrible person,” she told Porter during the sentencing hearing. “I couldn’t believe how you treated this lady. I couldn’t believe your age.”

Christina’s mother, Livia Prodan, had previously expressed concerns about her daughter's safety, telling authorities in Edina, Minn. that he had physically and sexually assaulted her daughter and beat her daughter's service dog, according to court records.

On the day of her daughter’s death, Livia Prodan had asked the police to check on her daughter.

According to a court report, officers in Edina, Minn. found the couple in a car near the apartment where Porter reportedly told them that Christina Prodan refused to leave the car.

Christina Prodan said she wanted to work things out with Porter before leaving the car.

Livia Prodan filed a missing person’s report, and for months was left questioning what happened to her daughter.

In a statement to the court, Livia Prodan wrote that Christina was her only child.

“I cry all the time,” she wrote.

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