A 39-year-old man admitted in Baltimore County Circuit Court on Monday that he killed his ex-girlfriend with a butcher knife as she lay in bed for an afternoon nap, and then fled to South Carolina with one of their daughters in a case that sparked a multistate manhunt last year.
Timothy Howard Virts pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the March 2014 death of Bobbie Jo Cortez, 36.
The case received widespread attention and inspired Facebook to launch an Amber Alert system in January. After a roughly 36-hour police search, a South Carolina motel owner recognized Virts and his daughter, who was 11 at the time, because she had seen a photo of them in a news article posted to the social media site.
Virts agreed to a sentence of life without parole as part of the plea. The state dropped other charges against him and an assistant state's attorney said the agreement will spare Cortez's family from the ordeal of a trial.
Prosecutors said Virts and Cortez had three children together and were scheduled to attend a custody hearing March 6, 2014. They said Virts — who had been staying at Cortez's Dundalk home, where she lived with the children and a female friend — stabbed Cortez to death the day before the scheduled hearing because he was afraid he would lose the right to see his kids.
Two of the children made statements at the hearing Monday. They were not identified by name in court to protect their privacy. One described her nightmares of her father escaping from jail.
"I just really hate him," one of the children said. "Everyone hates him. ... He put a hole in my heart when I heard [my mother] was dead."
The children left the courtroom before gruesome details of the murder were described.
Assistant State's Attorney Keith Pion read aloud from a statement of facts about the case, saying Virts had been thinking about killing Cortez for a few days before the murder.
The night of the killing, one of Cortez's children was wondering where her mother was, because she always tucked her in at night, Pion said. When she asked Virts, he laughed at her.
The next day, the same child was able to unlock the door to a basement bedroom and found Cortez dead in her bed, her mouth covered in duct tape, Pion said.
Pion said Virts had approached Cortez while she slept and then stabbed her to death as she screamed. He locked the bedroom door, washed off the knife, shaved and took a shower, Pion said, adding that Virts used Cortez's bank card to get something to eat, then went to sleep.
The next day, Virts asked one of his daughters if she wanted to go to the store, then fled to South Carolina with her, Pion said.
It was not clear why Virts only took one of the children.
Dressed in a wrinkled white shirt and khaki pants, Virts did not speak at length at the hearing. He answered a series of questions from his attorney, Mark Van Bavel, and Judge Michael J. Finifter about whether he understood his plea agreement.
"Once this plea is accepted today, this is written in stone," Van Bavel told him. "Do you understand that?"
"Yes," Virts answered.
Last year, Virts entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Since then, both a private psychiatrist and the staff of Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, a state-run facility, concluded that Virts was criminally responsible for his actions and competent to stand trial, Van Bavel told the judge.
As part of the plea, the state dropped other charges, including assault, kidnapping and attempted sexual abuse.
Pion said the plea arrangement spared Cortez's loved ones from the emotional difficulties of a trial. He noted that Virts still will receive the maximum penalty for murder.
"We believe that's the best possible result, because the public is safe forever from him, and the children involved and the witnesses involved don't have to testify—especially the children," Pion said outside the courthouse in Towson.
Van Bavel said his client agreed to the plea to take responsibility and because of concessions the state made, but would not elaborate. Virts wrote letters to his daughters saying that what happened was not their fault, he said.
"He takes 100 percent responsibility," Van Bavel said.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 19.
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