from www.pasadenastarnews.com – At first glance, Brian Randone might seem an unlikely match for Felicia Lee.

The 45-year-old Nebraska native holds a bachelor’s degree from the Moody Bible Institute and a master’s of divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary.

As a minister and missionary he used miming to spread God’s word at churches throughout Texas and the Caribbean. In 2000, Fox dubbed him Mr. Nebraska for the reality TV show “The Sexiest Bachelor in America.”

Despite his Midwestern upbringing, Christian education and network TV sex-appeal, Randone had a dark side, said ex-girlfriend Suzanne Davis.

Davis said she dated and worked with Randone for six years. During that time wealth transformed the one-time pastor into a drinker, gambler and violently jealous boyfriend, she said.

A charismatic and “geeky” Randone introduced himself to Davis at a banquet in 2002, she recalls. An actress by trade, Davis appeared on NBC’s “Port Charles” and played minor roles in a number of films, including “28 Days” and “The Client.” Recently out-of-work, Davis took Randone up on his offer to work with him selling Verizon contracts.

“He had this really beat up car, a bad toupee and always wore these lizard lounge shirts,” Davis said. “He never really had any money, ever.”

But business boomed and Randone got his first taste of wealth, she said.

“He woke up at the crack of dawn and never stopped working. It was like a drug for him, making that money, he couldn’t get enough of it.”

Randone started spending more and more of his time in Las Vegas and eventually purchased a property in the city, according to Davis and court documents.

After six years, the romantic relationship between Davis and Randone spoiled because of what she describes as his addictive, possessive and “deviant” personality.

Once, when Davis didn’t return Randone’s phone calls, he waited for her outside her apartment and verbally attacked her.

“He came out of nowhere and started screaming, `You smell like a whore, you look like a whore, your clothes are ruffled. Who are you having sex with?”‘ Davis recalls.

The two parted ways not long after the confrontation and Randone continued to experience business success, starting up the Walnut-based telecommunications company “KTI West.”

In April of 2009 Randone met Lee at a swimming pool in the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, friends said.

The 31-year-old Lee grew up in Walnut and attended Rowland High School before embarking on a career in modeling and acting. During her 20s, Lee starred in nude roles for a number of films, including “Hotel Decadence” and “Asian Fever.”

Lee had given up on modeling and was recently divorced after a brief marriage when she met Randone. Within weeks of their first encounter, Lee moved into Randone’s Monrovia apartment.

Just past noon on Sept. 11, 2009, firefighters prepared to break in the front-door of the Monrovia apartment Randone and Lee shared. Minutes earlier, Randone called 9-1-1 and reported Lee had a violent reaction to drugs. Officer Tom Montes removed a screen and tried a window; it was locked. Just then, a dripping wet Randone appeared in the doorway.

Montes and firefighters followed Randone upstairs to the bathtub, where Lee was laying lifeless. Montes surveyed the adjoining bedroom as firefighters checked Lee for a pulse. Blood stains on the sheets, broken closet doors and a toppled desk fan roused suspicion in the officer.

“(Randone) did appear nervous. He was pacing back and forth. We were in the bedroom. And that is when I noticed all the bed sheets, the closet door. I had told him to step outside into the hallway and I asked him what happened,” Montes testifies in court.

Turning his attention to the soon-to-be murder suspect, Montes noted scratch marks on Randone’s hand and arm. In response to Montes’ questions, Randone explained the closet doors broke in a struggle to restrain Lee, who had overdosed on drugs and was out-of-control. He went on to tell Montes that Lee became unresponsive after the episode and he attempted to revive her through CPR and by splashing water on her face.

Randone’s account could explain the scratches on his hand, his soaking wet clothes, the signs of a struggle and his failure to quickly answer the door. But homicide investigators were unconvinced. They took him into custody.

Sheriff’s homicide investigator Brian Schoonmaker said he counted in excess of 320 wounds on Lee’s body.

“Some of the bruises overlapped and it was just hard to distinguish how many bruises there were,” he testified.

Prosecutors point to Lee’s bruised and battered condition as proof Randone tortured and suffocated the model.

“This level of depravity and determination show the defendant as a particularly dangerous man,” wrote prosecutor Phil Wojdak in court papers.

But Randone’s defense attorney countered the drug GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid) caused Lee’s respiratory system to fail after spurring the violent episode.

Doctors prescribe the depressant in rare cases to treat insomnia. More frequently, recreational users like Lee ingest GHB, which also is known by its street name Liquid Ecstasy, along with stimulants to create a euphoric effect. A high enough dose of the drug, however, can cause death.

It’s not uncommon for people on GHB to die from respiratory depression, testified Dr. Cyrus Rangan, an expert on the effects of the drug. Rangan, however, couldn’t say whether or not Lee ingested enough GHB to attribute her asphyxiation to the drug. Rangan’s uncertainty can be ascribed to a lack of definitive testing. Since the preliminary hearing, the coroner’s department has performed more comprehensive tests.

But even those test results might leave experts in disagreement over Lee’s cause of death.

One of the reasons is frequent GHB users develop a tolerance to the drug. While a large enough dose of the drug can kill a novice, the same amount might have little or no effect on a habitual user.

By all accounts, Lee regularly used GHB in conjunction with stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine. Two of Lee’s close friends recount weekend-long parties in which she ingested the drug 30 to 50 times. “Usually we were running around, dancing and putting on different outfits and partying and just – you know, dancing and changing the music… we would just stay home and have fun,” Christina Galvez said.

Although Galvez was called as a prosecution witness intended to demonstrate Lee’s frequent use of the drug and high tolerance, on cross-examination she may have bolstered Randone’s defense. Galvez admits she once witnessed Lee flailing her limbs uncontrollably on the drug.

“I saw her lay down, and she was fighting going to sleep,” Galvez said.

Lee was of no danger to herself at the time, however, because she was in her bed, Galvez said.

But what if Lee wasn’t in bed?

Randone’s defense attorney offered Lee had sent a text message to Randone around midnight stating: “Very important you get back to me before the cops come as I am freaking out and have no one.”

A neighbor seems to further substantiate Randone’s contention that Lee had a violent reaction to drugs. The neighbor reported to Montes she heard what sounded like furniture being moved around inside the couple’s apartment between midnight and 2 a.m. – several hours before her death.

Ultimately, a jury will have to decide whether Lee was murdered or died from a drug overdose. In the months after his preliminary hearing, Randone hired a new defense attorney. But Wojdak said he expects Randone’s defense of respitory depression caused by a drug overdose to remain.

Randone is behind bars in lieu of $2 million bail.