Last September, Christine Morris told a friend that if she or her toddler daughter ended up dead or missing, Joseph Davis would be the person responsible.

The 33-year-old and Davis were in a relationship and had a 2-year-old daughter together.

On Friday, police and prosecutors say Davis killed Morris in the couple’s St. Paul home. Police found their daughter physically unharmed in the house.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Davis, 34, on Monday with second-degree intentional murder, not premeditated.

Officers responded to the home in Frogtown about 5:15 a.m. Friday to check a person’s wellbeing. Davis had called a family member, saying he’d killed Morris, “he was sorry” and he’d left the couple’s 2-year-old in the home on Edmund Avenue between Virginia and Farrington streets, according to a criminal complaint.

Police talked to another woman who previously had two children with Davis. She said he called her about 6:55 a.m. and left a message saying he’d killed the mother of one of his children, and he wanted to see their two children before he turned himself in. The woman told police Davis is “violent” and she still had an order for protection against him.

“The woman said she had told her lawyer that she feared Davis would kill her or someone else at some point,” the complaint continued.

Davis was sentenced in May 2023 and January 2024 for gross misdemeanor domestic assault against Morris. He was sentenced in June for violating a domestic abuse no contact order involving Morris.

After Morris was killed, a friend showed police text messages that Morris sent her in September, in which she wrote about Davis being responsible if anything happened to her, the complaint said.

Police “developed information” that Davis was at a Minneapolis apartment and the Minneapolis Police SWAT team carried out a warrant and arrested Davis “who refused to voluntarily exit the apartment,” the complaint said.

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Following his arrest, Davis told police he suspected Morris of lying and confronted her. He said he stabbed Morris and it wasn’t planned.

“I should have never did that to her. … That (expletive) was brutal. I — I definitely feel bad,” the complaint quoted him as saying to police. He said he watched her take her last breaths. “She suffered, bro, she definitely suffered,” the complaint said he also told police.

An autopsy found Morris had multiple stable wounds throughout her body.

Help for domestic violence in Minnesota is available 24/7 through the Day One hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.