PASADENA – from www.pasadenastarnews.com – A judge on Friday set an Oct. 22 preliminary hearing date for a Monrovia man accused of torturing and murdering his girlfriend.
Brian Randone is accused of the Sept. 11 slaying of Felicia Lee. Prosecutors allege Randone beat and suffocated the woman inside an apartment they shared.
Randone has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Randone is a former preacher and reality television show contestant. Lee, 31, was an actress who modeled nude on the Internet and in films under the name Felicia Tang.
Randone’s defense attorney, Mark Overland, asked Judge Dorothy Shubin on Friday to schedule a preliminary hearing for Oct. 26 to give him time to obtain Lee’s toxicology reports from the Los
Brian Randone in Pasadena Superior Court. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)
Angeles County Coroner.
Overland has suggested that Lee overdosed on drugs and Randone was attempting to restrain her “out-of-control” behavior when she died, according to court records.
Attorney Gloria Allred issued a statement on behalf of Lee’s mother on Friday.
Allred said Lee’s family “cannot understand how anyone could commit such horrible crimes on such a sweet and beautiful young woman.
Allred suggested that the labeling of Lee as a “porn star” in some news reports of the killing is part of a campaign by supporters of Randone to smear the woman.
“Is the porn star label an effort by supporters of the defense to try to dehumanize her or somehow insinuate that she deserved to die if she was involved in pornography?” Allred
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said. “Are some supporters of Brian Randone trying to suggest that because Brian has a bachelor’s degree from a bible institute and a masters degree in divinity that he is a good guy who should never have been arrested?”
Public records and Web searches reveal that Randone received a master’s of divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and appeared on the 2000 Fox reality show “The Sexiest Bachelor in America” as Mr. Nebraska. He once worked as a pastor and put on mime acts with religious themes.
Lee appeared nude in a number of adult-oriented films, at least one of which shows her engaging in simulated sexual behavior with another woman.
Her family says she studied business at Mt. SAC and worked for a mortgage company before she went into modeling.