Secret marriage ended in murder

Killer’s lawyers push insanity defense

The arranged marriage between a South Florida woman and a Romanian man was a secret business deal. He was paying her $500 a month so he could become a U.S. citizen.

But before they could file the citizenship paperwork, the woman was murdered — by her live-in boyfriend.

Prosecutors say Yusef Jamal Green slit Lauren Ashley White’s throat five years ago this week, after discovering she was married to a foreign national. But it’s still unclear when a jury will decide the fate of Green, 41.

All murder trials have been on hold since early March because of C OVID -19 restrictions at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

Green’s lawyers don’t dispute that he killed his 27- year-old girlfriend inside her Lake Worth apartment. They argue he was insane at the time and should be locked up in a mental health facility rather than sent to state prison for life. For now, he remains in custody at the county jail.

Court records provide details about the slaying, Green’s unsuccessful attempts to cover it up and the evolving prosecution.

Bloody crime scene

Ursula White L em mens told detectives that she spoke with or texted her granddaughter Lauren White every day. But by Jan. 3, 2016, Lemmens was worried because it had been three days since she last heard from her.

So L em mens decided to goto the apartment at 1702 S. Dixie Highway, which she owned and where White lived with her boyfriend, Yusef Green.

Upon arriving, Lemmens noticed White’s car, a 2010 black Honda, wasn’t parked out front. She went to the second floor unit and knocked, but no one answered. She looked through a window and saw a burning candle.

That’s when she called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies entered the apartment through an unlocked window.

They reported finding blood spattered on the floor and walls and immediately encountering the strong odor of a decomposing body.

Behind a living room couch, they found White wrapped in a sheet and bed covers, under a pillow and a rug. Yankee Candle air fresheners were placed inside the bedding. An autopsy later determined White had been killed by a cut on her neck, and it was a homicide.

Investigators found signs of a bloody struggle, including a broken glass candle. They ruled out a break-in, noting that the front door had been locked. Towels covered the floor, concealing bloody footprints left there by Green. In the bathroom, a box of bandages and discarded wrappers lay on the floor.

And there was one more clue: A notebook journal was found in the bedroom closet. On the page left open, Green had written that White was unfaithful.

Married for money

White’s grandmother told a detective that White had been married to a Romanian citizen named Alexandru Nicolae for money, despite her continuing a romantic relationship with Green.

Green had recently discovered paperwork

about the secret marriage, Lemmens said. She said White had told her that Green threatened to call immigration authorities and report her if White tried to evict him from the apartment.

Nicolae, who has a Miami address listed in court records, told the same detective that he had known White for years. He said he was supposed to see White at a Starbucks on Jan. 3, prior to a meeting the next day at their accountant’s office to finalize the citizenship documents.

Nicolae said he had received a text from White’s phone at 4 p.m. Jan. 2, but she was uncharacteristically unreachable when he tried to follow up about their plans.

When contacted recently by the South Florida Sun Sentinel on his cellphone, Nicolae said he had “no comments right now.”

L em mens died six months after her granddaughter was killed, according to an obituary published online by a West Palm Beach funeral home. Under federal immigration law, someone who holds a green card, or permanent resident status, must be married to a U.S. citizen for three years before applying for citizenship.

Specifics about Nicolae and White’s marriage, or his immigration status, aren’t clear from the murder case filings. Nicolae is listed as a witness for the trial.

Tulio G. Suarez, an attorney who specializes in immigration matters for the Devore Law Group in Palm Beach Gardens, said federal authorities typically investigate to make sure a marriage is for love or companionship, and not a business arrangement. Violators are warned they could face fines and other penalties, but people still try to game the system run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Suarez, who is not connected with the Green case.

“It’s not unheard of at all, unfortunately,” he said.

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