Cuban Military Vet Pleads Guilty to Charges He Fatally Snapped Girlfriend's Neck During Fight

Hermenegildo Cardenes Morffah

​A Phoenix man who claims he learned to kill while a member of the Cuban military was in a Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where he pleaded guilty to charges that he fatally snapped his girlfriend's neck during an argument.

Hermenegildo Cardenes Morffah agreed to a second-degree murder charge today for the September 2010 murder of his then-girlfriend, 38-year-old Jacqui Rae Dodge.

Cardenes Morffah turned himself in to police after the fight with Dodge. He told cops her body was in the home the two shared in the 5700 block of North 11th Way near Montebello Avenue. Her neck, he said, was broken.

At the time, Cardenes Morffah told police that the two began fighting after he suspected her of cheating on him. Things turned violent, and he snapped her neck.

A kickboxing instructor and personal trainer, Cardenes Morffah told police he served in the Cuban military for five years and had killed people in the course of military action.

He told police he'd considered suicide before turning himself in, and acknowledged that Dodge's alleged "actions did not justify murder, and he knew he was going to jail for the rest of his life."

Cardenes Morffah will be sentenced by Judge Sherry Stephens on June 15.