Man found guilty of murdering former girlfriend
MARTINEZ >> A Contra Costa jury found a Concord man guilty of first degree murder in the brutal beating death of his former girlfriend, whose body was discovered floating in a duck pond in May 2016.
Erick Lamar Nelson, 31, was convicted of murdering Poinsetta Love GantParks, 25, in an attack that prosecutors say was motivated by the fallout from their failed relationship. Authorities believe Nelson became obsessed with Gant-Parks and flew into a rage, beating her with an unknown blunt object and ripping out part of her tongue during the attack. He then reportedly dumped her body at Newhall Park in Concord.
Nelson faces life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, prosecutors said. Jurors heard closing arguments on Thursday and reached the verdict within one full day of deliberations.
Gant-Parks was around six weeks pregnant at the time she was killed. Prosecutors didn’t charge Nelson with two murders because the state’s murder penal code doesn’t apply to fetuses in early pregnancies.
Nelson’s attorney accused Concord police of ignoring evidence that absolved her client after they became convinced early on that he was guilty. Prosecutors, though, pointed to a palm print found at the murder scene and alleged statements Nelson made about wanting to hurt Gant-Parks as evidence that he was guilty.
Gant-Parks had also confided to friends she was planning to leave the area because of Nelson’s increasingly disturbing, possessive behavior, prosecutors argued at trial. Hours before she was killed, she texted a friend that she needed help but didn’t say why.
Authorities believe Nelson murdered Gant-Parks at Newhall Park, because they followed a trail of blood from the duck pond to the suspected murder scene. A forensic pathologist testified that Gant-Parks’ killer inflicted several potentially fatal injuries during the attack, though prosecutors aren’t sure what weapon was used.
Police later recovered her car, which had been set on fire in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence. Nelson was arrested in Reno, Nevada, a week after the murder.