He Greeted Her Child First…Then Did This on Father’s Day
“What did he say the first time you spoke?”
“When I see your wife, I’m going to kill her. The second time he called, he reiterated that he was going to hurt her.”
“CPR and, you know, I noticed the bullet wounds. I noticed she took her last two breaths.”
“I hate you. And you can feel my skin. I hate you, dog.”
“We were supposed to be dating. We were still dating until this plumber guy came along.”
“Okay, I’mma leave that alone.”
“My mom was the nicest person, the most caring person. And for you to take her out of my life like that hurts my heart so much.”
“For him to see his mama take her last breath and him trying to help her live and then him running outside screaming, ‘Help, help, help.’ That’s sad.”
“You know, we all lose loved ones every day, but to see your mom just die in front of you under those circumstances—that’s the sad part.”
He came into that house, greeted a four-year-old child, and shot her mother ten times on Father’s Day inside their own home. And here is what nobody has been able to answer: if the people closest to her already knew he was dangerous, why was he never stopped?
This story takes us to Detroit, Michigan, and to a woman named Latrice Morris Dorsey. Latrice was forty-two years old. She was a physical therapist. She spent her days helping people heal, helping people regain their strength, and helping people move forward. She had built a real career for herself and was raising three children: a college-age daughter, a fourteen-year-old son named Justin, and a four-year-old daughter named Jada.
Before any of this happened, Latrice had been married to a man named Paul Dorsey. The two eventually separated and divorced, and at some point after that, she began seeing a man named Earl Maxwell. Maxwell was in his late thirties at the time. The relationship lasted four years, and when Latrice decided she was ready to move on, Maxwell could not accept it.
She relocated to a new home on Avon Avenue on the west side of Detroit with her three children. She cut Maxwell off on every platform—social media, phone, everything. She was done, and she made that clear. Instead of walking away, Maxwell picked up the phone and called Paul Dorsey, Latrice’s estranged husband—a man he had no real business contacting. And on that call, Maxwell told him exactly what he was planning to do.
Paul Dorsey said Maxwell called him at least twenty more times after that. Each call was a threat. Paul says he warned Latrice every time, and the last warning came just two weeks before Father’s Day 2017.
Latrice had done everything right. She ended the relationship, moved to a new home, and cut off all contact. That Father’s Day, she was getting ready to go celebrate with her sisters and her father. Her daughter, Jada, four years old, was right there in the room with her, watching her mother get ready. Down the hall, fourteen-year-old Justin was in his room with his headphones on, playing Xbox.
Maxwell came to that house and found Latrice in her room. And according to what Jada later told her aunt Megan, he looked at her, greeted her, and then turned to her mother.
“She said he came in and he started—he said hi to Jada, and then he started shooting her mom.”
“He shot her five times.”
“Jada said five times. She was four years old.”
The official autopsy report confirmed it was ten.
Maxwell fled immediately after. And this is what the neighbor heard next.
“You know, my mama’s been shot. You know, my mama going to die. I don’t know if he didn’t kill off my mama. You know, I don’t know what’s going on.”
That was Justin, fourteen years old, running outside screaming for help. A neighbor named Ron Wilson heard Justin and rushed over to help. Emergency services responded, but Latrice was pronounced gone at the scene. Justin made it to his mother. He held her as she took her last breath, and the man responsible was already gone.
This all happened on Father’s Day—the same day her father, James Morris, was supposed to be celebrating with his daughters.
Detroit police were already looking for Earl Maxwell. They released his description to the public: five-foot-eight-inches tall, heavy build, Latrice’s name tattooed on his arm, and yellow teeth.
“Murdered with her children in the house with her, including her four-year-old little girl. Now, police say the search is on to find and question her ex-boyfriend. Loved ones say that ex-boyfriend has been a problem.”
“The children weren’t harmed, at least not physically. Physically, they’re okay, but as you can imagine, heartbroken and damaged in so many other ways after what happened here. Latrice Dorsey had just moved into this yellow house with her kids a few months ago after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend—a man who would not leave her alone.”
“He told me last week, he said, ‘If I don’t get in touch with your ex-wife, I’m going to come and shoot her in the head.'”
Loved ones of forty-two-year-old Latrice Dorsey say her ex-boyfriend was upset that she had already moved on after their breakup a few months ago. Detroit police were looking to question thirty-eight-year-old Earl Maxwell in Latrice’s murder. She was killed in her home on Avon in front of her four-year-old daughter, Jada.
“She said he came in and he started—he said hi to Jada and he started shooting her mom.”
“He shot her five times.”
Latrice’s fourteen-year-old son Justin was in a back room with his headphones on playing Xbox. He heard his mom arguing with someone, but he had no idea the sounds that followed were gunshots until his little sister ran to tell him Mommy had been shot.
“For him to see his mama take her last breath and him trying to help her live and then him running outside screaming for help—that’s sad.”
“You know, we all lose loved ones every day, but to see your mom just die in front of you under those circumstances—that’s the sad part.”
Now, the search was on to find Latrice’s ex-boyfriend, Earl Maxwell. At that time, Detroit police were only calling him a person of interest.
“If somebody knows where he’s at, you are just as guilty as him. The fact that you are hiding him, the fact that you are helping him hide.”
The reporter said that on live television, and the community was already asking the question that the whole story comes down to: if Maxwell had been threatening her for weeks, why was nothing done?
Two days after Father’s Day, Earl Maxwell walked into the Detroit Police Department and turned himself in. Two days after police had named him publicly as a person of interest. Investigators say that before he turned himself in, he had already gotten rid of the weapon. That fact, combined with him fleeing the scene, became a key part of the prosecution’s case.
Maxwell was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder and a felony firearms violation.
One woman said publicly that Maxwell had worked as a barber on the west side of Detroit and that she had always sensed something was off about him. She said she never went back after her first interaction with him. Another person said he was always trying to get women’s numbers and that something about his energy never sat right. These were not strangers speaking from a distance. These were people who had been in the same spaces as this man. And now that his name was attached to what happened on Avon Avenue, they were speaking up.
“The man accused of killing a Detroit mom while her kids were home will be in court. A judge is going to be deciding if there is enough evidence to send him to trial. This is a crime that really shocked this neighborhood.”
“Yes, it really did shock the neighborhood because the woman was shot and killed in her home while her kids were also in the house. Today, thirty-seven-year-old Earl Maxwell will be in court facing charges for her murder. It’s been four months since the death of a Detroit mother shot and killed in her own home.”
“This was the scene that day as family and friends learned Latrice Morris Dorsey was murdered. What’s really disturbing is that there was a four-year-old child in the house and a fourteen-year-old. To find your mom, to hear the gunshots and come out into a room and see your mom laying there bleeding—my heart goes out to them and to the family.”
Police say Dorsey’s ex-boyfriend, Earl Maxwell, shot her multiple times in her home. Dorsey’s teenager heard arguing followed by gunshots, and neighbors recalled what happened next.
“He’s just saying, ‘Help, my mama’s been shot. My mama going to die. I don’t know if he didn’t kill my mama. I don’t know what’s going on.'”
Neighbor Ron Wilson tried to revive Dorsey that day. “They gave her CPR, and I noticed the bullet wounds. I noticed she took her last two breaths.”
Medics responded to the scene and pronounced Dorsey dead. Police say Maxwell turned himself in to the Detroit Police Department a couple of days later in connection to the deadly shooting.
At the preliminary hearing, the autopsy report was introduced. It confirmed Latrice Morris Dorsey had been struck ten times, including once in the back of the head. Paul Dorsey took the stand and testified about the phone calls—the twenty-plus threats Maxwell had made, including the one that came just two weeks before Father’s Day.
“What did he say the first time you spoke?”
“When I see your wife, I’m going to kill her. The second time he called, he reiterated that he was going to hurt her.”
Maxwell’s defense attorney pushed back on Paul Dorsey’s testimony, pointing out that parts of what he said on the stand did not match his original statement to police. Paul Dorsey’s testimony had people divided. A lot of the public felt he should have done more with those threats—called the police, taken action beyond just warning Latrice. That is a fair question and one that never got a clear answer in the public record.
What is clear is that Maxwell had made his intentions known, and the prosecution was about to show exactly that.
“Accidentally.” That was the word he used. And his defense team actually tried to build an argument around it, claiming that without proven intent, the first-degree murder charge could not stick. The judge ruled there was enough evidence to move forward and bound Maxwell over on the first-degree murder charge.
“Well, no, sir.”
“What did I just say? I said the first time—he called back. He said he killed her. He called back five minutes later told me he wasn’t going to kill her. But that’s what he said. He said twice he was going to kill her.”
“Okay. But that’s not what’s in your statement, is it?”
“Yeah. That’s because—that’s because—want me tell you why? That’s because my wife was dead and I’m going through my mind crazy. Okay. And you guys questioned me—I know. Go ahead. Do your thing.”
“Witnesses say he had a cold, calculated plot to kill. Brand new revelations in court against a man charged with gunning down a Detroit mother as her children looked on.”
“Dorsey was killed back on June 18th inside her Detroit home. Her ex-boyfriend Earl Maxwell faces first-degree murder charges in the case. He is headed to trial. Some of those awful details—we knew that she was murdered with her four-year-old daughter in the same room, her fourteen-year-old son in the next room. But today, the autopsy report was discussed and introduced, and it was learned this woman was shot ten times.”
“Latrice Morris Dorsey had dated Earl Maxwell for about four years until right before she was murdered. Testimony today at Maxwell’s preliminary hearing indicated they’d broken up and she was dating someone else. And clearly, Maxwell was upset.”
Maxwell’s defense attorney challenged Dorsey’s testimony, saying it conflicted with his statement to police. But the prosecutor pointed to another statement.
“In his statement, he claims that he accidentally shot Ms. Dorsey ten times. He specifically indicates that he accidentally shot her in the back of the head, in her hands, throughout her body.”
“All with that four-year-old girl in the room. And the word ‘accidentally’ is what the defense is focusing on to try and get this first-degree part of the murder charge. That seems to be the sticking point here—one of those shots that went to the back of the head, they’re saying was accidental. But again, he was bound over on the first-degree murder charge as well.”
“Talk to me about the defense. Are they trying this as a crime of passion? Because Maxwell allegedly fled the scene.”
“Yes, he did flee the scene. And police also say he tossed the weapon. So both of those conflict with a ‘crime of passion’ sort of thing. And as you also heard, those threats made in testimony today happened two weeks before this killing. The prosecution points to this as premeditated.”
Maxwell then pleaded guilty before the case went to trial. By pleading guilty to first-degree murder, Maxwell was looking at the possibility of life in prison. When sentencing day came, Latrice’s family was there. Her children were there. And so was Maxwell—with a lot to say.
On sentencing day, Maxwell stood before that judge. He told the court he loved her more than once. And then he kept going.
“We were supposed to be dating. We were still dating until this plumber guy came along. Okay, I’mma leave that alone. But I was wrong. I was wrong and I’m sorry, and ain’t no way I can repay this. It’s between me and the Lord. Now, I just want to let y’all know that I have repented with every bone in my body. And I can never take this back down here on this earth. And I just want to let y’all know that the Lord gave me a dream that she’s with the Lord. And that’s the only thing that kept me from killing myself.”
Convicted of first-degree murder. And he was in there talking about a plumber. Latrice’s children were sitting right there, and one of them, Latrice’s stepdaughter, had heard enough. The judge told him to stop. He kept going. Latrice’s family was not moved.
Earl Maxwell was sentenced to twenty-five to fifty years in prison. The public reaction to that number was immediate. Many felt it did not match what he had done.
Justin was fourteen years old when he stood up in that courtroom and made a promise.
“My mom was the nicest person, the most caring person. And for you to take her out of my life like that hurts my heart so much.”
And four years later, he sat down for an interview to talk about what he did with that promise. The promise was made in a courtroom at fourteen, and what came after it was entirely up to him.
“She just couldn’t hold back her anger. The stepdaughter of a woman killed as young children looked on comes face to face with the killer. Wait until you hear what she said before the judge hauled him off to prison. Raw emotion today inside a Detroit courtroom as Earl Maxwell was sentenced for the cold-blooded murder of his girlfriend. Making matters worse is what Maxwell said to the court before his sentence was handed down. He repeatedly said that he loved her. How her children managed to keep it together as well as they did, I have no idea, because the only thing worse than listening to this man blather on about how much he loved this woman that he murdered was when he started trying to justify what he did.”
“I hate you. And you can feel my skin.”
Children grieving their mother poured their hearts out in a Wayne County courtroom today. Earl Maxwell was the ex-boyfriend of Latrice Morris Dorsey. He became so enraged with her that he burst into her home last year and shot and killed her right in front of her four-year-old daughter, with her fourteen-year-old son in a neighboring room.
“My mom was the nicest person, the most caring person. And for you to take her out of my life like that hurts my heart so much.”
What disgusted her children even more was Maxwell’s attempt to explain himself.
“We were supposed to be dating. We were still dating until this plumber guy came along.”
“Okay, I’mma leave that alone.”
Maxwell continued on with things that had the judge telling him to stop, until finally:
“But I was wrong. I was wrong and I’m sorry, and ain’t no way I can repay this. It’s between me and the Lord. Now, I just want to let y’all know that I have repented with every bone in my body. And I can never take this back down here on this earth. And I just want to let y’all know that the Lord gave me a dream that she’s with the Lord. And that’s the only thing that kept me from killing myself.”
Her family didn’t think much of his repenting. Apparently, the judge didn’t either, sentencing him to twenty-five to fifty years in prison.
Justin has been open about the fact that he had to fight for it. He said it himself: he went to the gym six days a week. He kept his grades at a 4.0, and he put everything he had into football.
“I’m really happy. I’m happy it’s over with. I miss my friends and stuff, but I mean, you got to grow up in life sooner or later.”
“When I walk in the hallway, my little sister runs out, says, ‘Mom just got shot. Mom just got shot.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?'”
“You can’t describe it. You have to actually lose a parent just like how I did to really know the feeling that I felt.”
“To achieve what I really wanted—to be a football player, to go to school—I had to stop all that and actually get right. I had to, because if I didn’t, I mean, I wouldn’t have what I want right now. I knew at the end of the day I had to work hard for what I want, and that was to go to college on a scholarship, to play my favorite sport, and major in what my mom always wanted—just to get the degree she didn’t have, to make her proud, because I knew I wanted it for myself. We all want to be successful, but first you have to want it for yourself, and that is what I achieved.”
Ferris State University offered him a full football scholarship. And when people asked him what kept him going, he pointed straight back to her.
At Ferris State, Justin chose to major in physical therapy—his mother’s profession. The same field Latrice had built her career in. The same work she had dedicated herself to: helping people heal, helping people move forward, and helping people get their strength back. Her son chose to carry that forward. He is going to spend his life doing what she did, and he is going to do it with a degree she never got the chance to earn.
Latrice spent her career helping people heal. Justin is going to spend his doing the same. That kind of choice does not come from nowhere. It comes from the person who raised him.
And Jada, the four-year-old who was in that room on Father’s Day, was eight years old by the time Justin graduated. She was living with her father and stepmother, and according to the reporter who covered Justin’s story, she was doing better.
Latrice did everything she was supposed to do. She ended the relationship, moved to a new home, and cut off all contact. She followed every step—and it was not enough.
“Yes, a coward took his mother’s life. But during his sentencing, fourteen-year-old Justin Dorsey stood up in court and promised he would succeed like his mom wanted him to. He kept his promise.”
“I’m really happy. I’m happy it’s over with. I miss my friends and stuff, but I mean, you got to grow up in life sooner or later.”
Justin Dorsey, who just graduated from high school, had to grow up faster than most. Four years ago this month, when he was just fourteen years old, his mother, Latrice Morris Dorsey, was shot and killed by a jealous ex inside their Detroit home.
“When I walk in the hallway, my little sister runs out, says, ‘Mom just got shot. Mom just got shot.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?'”
Justin called 911, tried to stop the bleeding, but it was too late. His mom, his everything, died in his arms.
“You can’t describe it. You have to actually lose a parent just like how I did to really know the feeling that I felt.”
His mother’s killer was caught. Justin stood up to him in court. All of this as he was about to become a freshman at Livonia’s Clarenceville High School. Justin admits he struggled at first.
“To achieve what I really wanted—to be a football player, to go to school—I had to stop all that and actually get right. I had to, because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have what I want right now.”
Justin worked hard, getting a 4.0, going to the gym six times a week, and taking his aggression out on the field. That hard work paid off. Ferris State University offering Justin a scholarship to play football, where he also plans to follow in his mother’s footsteps, majoring in physical therapy.
Justin read us part of his speech that was read as he accepted his high school diploma: “I knew at the end of the day I had to work hard for what I want, and that was to go to college on a scholarship to play my favorite sport and major in what my mom always wanted, just to get the degree she didn’t have, to make her proud, because I knew I wanted it for myself. We all want to be successful, but first you have to want it for yourself, and that is what I achieved.”
Justin wants to make his mom proud, achieving what she couldn’t because of her untimely death. He just wishes she was here to see it. “She supported me through everything, and just for me to accomplish my dreams and goals, I really wish she could see me.”
And Justin says his advice: never give up. If someone tries to put down your dreams, prove them wrong.
“Justin is an absolutely amazing young man, an example for all of us. He’s doing well. His sister was four years old at the time, and sadly she witnessed the murder of her mother. Now she’s eight years old. She’s doing better. They are living with her father and stepmother. They are raising her along with Justin, and right now they’re doing the best they can. Certainly under the circumstances, they miss their mom, but they’re on the right path.”
“It’s good to know that there’s hope in spite of tragedy.”
Maxwell had made at least twenty threatening calls to Paul Dorsey. That information existed, and it never reached law enforcement before Father’s Day. Paul Dorsey says he warned Latrice every time. Latrice was doing everything she could.
The gap between knowing something is dangerous and getting law enforcement involved in time is where this story breaks down. This is not unique to Latrice’s case. Threats get dismissed. Warnings get ignored. And by the time law enforcement gets involved, it is often after the fact. That is a problem that goes far beyond Detroit.
If you or someone you know is in a situation where threats have been made, please get law enforcement involved. Do not wait for something to happen first. Latrice’s story is a reminder of what is at stake when warnings are not taken seriously.
At forty-two years old, Latrice Morris Dorsey was a physical therapist, a mother of three, a daughter, and a sister. She was trying to move forward with her life. Earl Maxwell is serving twenty-five to fifty years in prison. Many people felt that sentence was not enough, and that conversation is still ongoing.
What Maxwell could not take was the legacy. A son with a 4.0 and a full scholarship. A daughter who is still here. And a family that is still standing.
Justin Dorsey is going to spend his life helping people heal, just like his mother did.
Rest well, Latrice.
