Gary McGurk pleads guilty to brutally killing NYPD criminologist and ex-girlfriend Michelle Lee

BY Lisa L. Colangelo
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, May 21st 2010, 4:00 AM
Gary McGurk faces 29 to 37 years in prison for murdering NYPD criminologist and ex-girlfriend Michelle Lee.
end Michelle Lee.

A 24-year-old Queens man pleaded guilty Thursday to the brutal 2009 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, an NYPD criminologist.

Gary McGurk admitted to slamming Michelle Lee in the head with an hammer, stabbing her in the neck with a knife and burning her body with an iron.

He then posed her battered, naked body in an effort to throw off investigators.

"I positioned her on the bed," McGurk told Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak. "I positioned a knife in her neck."

Investigators said McGurk, who bilked the 24-year-old Lee out of thousands of dollars by pretending he had cancer, may have become enraged when she decided to cut him off.

McGurk told cops he had an on-again, off-again sexual relationship with Lee since meeting her at the CUNY John Jay College gym in 2004, where he played soccer.

"Sweet girl. Friends first, herself last," McGurk said in a statement. "She told me that she made bad decisions. I told her that I was a bad decision, joking."

Wearing a white sweater and jeans, McGurk showed little emotion yesterday in court as he described going to Lee's Sunnyside apartment in April 2009 and wrapping her head in plastic wrap and then striking her four times in the head with a hammer.

McGurk, 24, said he also tied her hands to the bedpost with her cell phone charger.

He left the apartment with the bloodied plastic wrap, the hammer and Lee's BlackBerry.

A woman seated behind McGurk sobbed while Lee's family members sat grim-faced during the proceedings.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the plea deal spared them from hearing about the gruesome crime during a trial.

"I think that Michelle would have been especially proud of her colleagues at the NYPD's Queens crime lab who worked tirelessly to make certain that her killer was apprehended and that justice would be served," said Brown.

McGurk faces 29 to 37 years in jail when he is sentenced next month. In addition, he could also be deported to his native Ireland.

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

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