An Ivy League lawyer accused of strangling his Weight Watchers executive girlfriend has allegedly been caught on voicemail forcing her to plead for her life.
Jason Bohn, 34, has been charged with murder over the beating and strangling of 27-year-old Danielle Thomas in their Astoria, New York apartment just over a year ago.
The pocket-dial to a friend's voicemail on June 24, 2012 appears to capture the tragic last moments of Miss Thomas's life.
The tape, exclusively obtained by CBS, will be central for the prosecution during Bohn's first-degree murder trial which is due to begin on July 29. He faces life in prison.
On the chilling recording, a man believed to be Bohn relentlessly questions why Miss Thomas made a phone call to a number with a 508 area code.
Bohn then strangles the 27-year-old before letting go as she pleads with him and tries to answer his questions, CBS was told by prosecutors.
She struggles to breath as she answers over and over: 'I don't know... Jason, I love you.'
He then replies: 'You have five seconds and then...and then I'm going to kill you.
He continues: 'I'm going to let you up and then you need to answer quickly or else you die... Danielle, why did you call that number?
It is unclear whether the voicemail came from the victim or alleged killer's cellphone.
Bohn has been charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors said, because he appeared to draw pleasure from taking his girlfriend's life.
Neighbors called police to check on her after hearing a fight and the woman's dead body was found in a bathtub full of ice.
Bohn had fled the couple's apartment in Queens with his girlfriend's phone which he used to assure her family she was fine.
He sent a text to one of her contacts saying: 'Please trust me,' adding that Thomas was 'fine' and attending the weekend’s gay pride parade in Greenwich Village.
He also used the phone to call a former flame, allegedly confessing to her that he got drunk and slammed Miss Thomas against a wall.
He was eventually tracked down to a restaurant in White Plains five days after the killing and charged with murder - which was later upgraded to first degree - and evidence tampering.
After he was jailed, Bohn dictated to his brother a self-pitying rant to be posted on Facebook blaming his girlfriend for the killing.
He blamed Miss Thomas, stress, alcohol and his own abuse at the hands of his father for the murder - refusing to take responsibility for his murderous actions.
'I suspected she was a cheater,' he wrote.
'At the very least, I gradually confirmed she was a compulsive liar, particularly with regard to relations with the opposite sex, both past and present.
'As a result I grew insecure and abusive. In hines-sight [sic] one of us should've walked away. But, I was already madly in love with her.
'I was also extremely mad (both meanings).'
He described the night he killed her, claiming he got drunk and snapped but 'in all honesty, it was an accident,' he wrote.
'I woke up the next morning in complete shock.
'My knuckles were bruised badly and she was on the floor unconscious,' he added on his Facebook page.
[....]
Police records show that Bohn has a history of abuse and had repeatedly threatened Thomas before her death, saying he would hunt her down 'like a dog in the streets'.
When officers discovered Thomas, they found two handwritten notes in the couple’s apartment, believed to have been written by Bohn.
The first note said: ‘It was an accident…I had been drinking and I was drunk when I got home. She was already asleep. I woke up and there was fighting between us. When I woke up again she was unconscious…I am sorry.'
