Torture Suspect Who Was Released on Low Bond Charged with a 4th Murder
A Detroit man who allegedly killed three people, including his mother, after he was released on bond by a judge last year has been charged with a fourth murder.
According to WJBK-TV, Jonathan Welch tortured and attempted to sexually assault his former girlfriend last June.
She told police Welch was suspicious of who she had been talking to on her phone and demanded she hand over the device in June of last year. She refused and then endured four hours of torture, she said.
Zlayiah Frazier, who had a child with Welch, told detectives her child’s father strangled her with an extension cord off and on for hours.
Welch allegedly used the cord to strangle Frazier but would release it from her neck before she could lose consciousness.
She also accused him of threatening her with a power drill, pouring gasoline between her legs, and setting it on fire. She also alleged he heated up a spatula on a stove and burned her arms with it and also attempted to sexually assault her with a pole.
Frazier was able to escape to safety with her child and Welch was arrested and charged with numerous felonies in the alleged assault, including torture.
In spite of the nature of the alleged violent assault, 36th District Court Magistrate Dawn White of Detroit set Welch’s bond at only $100,000 – meaning he only needed to come up with 10 percent of that amount in cash to be released.
Welch bonded out and police say he found Frazier and killed her.
From there, officers say he barricaded himself inside his mother’s home in the Detroit suburb of Harper Woods.
Officers on the scene said he fired a weapon at them, set the building on fire and killed his mother and her husband.
The victims were identified as Robert Bray Jr. and Flossie Nicole Bray.
Welch was arrested and charged with the three murders, which numerous critics blamed on Judge White, given the severity of the defendant’s alleged crimes and the low bail amount she set.
Thursday, prosecutors charged Welch with a fourth murder they say occurred a week before he tortured Frazier.
⚖️CHARGED: Jonathan Welch, 23, is charged in connection with the homicide of a 24-year-old woman.
It’s alleged that the defendant killed the victim on June 4, 2022. On June 6, 2022, officers located the victim in a field, deceased and suffering from blunt force trauma. pic.twitter.com/EyCf5egv4f
— Detroit Police News (@detroitpolice) March 23, 2023
Detectives say Welch killed 24-year-old Natayla Morse last year. Her body was found on June 4 after she was beaten to death.
Her body went unidentified for some time, but Welch was connected to the slaying and charged.
He was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday, March 24.
When Welch was arrested and charged with three murders last year and held without bond, Frazier’s sister Breonna told a court the alleged killer should have never been released from jail.
“They let him out of jail, he killed my sister, he killed my sister,” she said. “They should’ve never let him out of prison… I don’t have nothing else to say.”
The judge in the murder cases, Kenneth King, called Welch’s alleged actions after bonding out a court’s “worst nightmare,” WJBK-TV reported.
“I know it’s far too little far too late,” King said. “This is the court’s worst nightmare, worst possible scenario that could happen and that the witness has been killed after the defendant was placed on bond.”
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