An ex-Cal State Fullerton basketball player serving time for the 2010 murder of his former girlfriend killed himself, authorities said.
Justin Burns died from asphyxia due to strangulation, according to the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner.
The 39-year-old Burns died June 8 at High Desert State Prison where he was serving time for the second-degree murder of Michele Carson, 25, of West Covina.
Carson’s father, John Carson, said he found out Friday from a Las Vegas reporter that Burn’s death was a suicide.
“I am relieved that I will no longer have to attend parole hearings and worry about Burns getting out of prison and murdering again,” John Carson said. “I really can’t speculate on why he killed himself.”
John Carson said he is grateful to Elynne Greene, manager of the Victim Services Unit at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the prosecutor Robert Daskas and Jennifer Rey, victim services officer at the Nevada Department of Corrections.
“They went above and beyond guiding myself and family through the whole process,” John Carson said.
It was Rey who told John Carson that Burns was found dead in his cell.
Burns played center for Cal State Fullerton’s basketball team from 2004 to 2007. He and Michele Carson met at the university and dated off and on for about five years.
Burns strangled Michele Carson, drove her body to the desert, set her on fire and buried her under rocks, John Carson said. Her body was found by men who were target shooting in 2010.
Investigators arrested Burns in Mississippi in 2011. He pleaded guilty on July 31, 2017, to second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. He was serving 10 to 25 years.
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