Minnesota man DENIES beating LA model to death and stuffing her body inside fridge as he makes first appearance since murder arrest

A Minnesota man arrested in connection with the killing of a Los Angeles model pleaded not guilty after she was found dead, bound and gagged in her refrigerator. 

Magnus Daniel Humphrey, 41, made his first appearance in a California courtroom on Thursday, where he denied charges of murdering and torturing Malessa Mooney. 

Humphrey was arrested on November 3 in Minneapolis at his home on an unrelated federal warrant and extradited to California. He had been on federal probation for narcotics offenses.

Mooney, 31, was a model and also worked as a real estate agent at Beverly Hills-based agency Nest Seekers. She had only moved into her new apartment a month before she was found dead on September 12 last year, her family said. 

Mooney's family raised the alarm when they stopped hearing from her and officers entered her home and found blood pooling under the refrigerator with her body inside, bound with electrical cords and clothing, according to a coroner's report

The Minnesota man arrested in connection with the killing of Los Angeles model Malessa Mooney pleaded not guilty to the crime

Mooney, 31, was a model and also worked as a real estate agent at Beverly Hills-based agency Nest Seekers. She had only moved into her new apartment a month before she was found dead on September 12 last year, her family said 

Her body had blunt force injuries and lacerations and the cause of death was determined to be 'homicidal violence'.

The family reacted to finally being able to put a suspect to the brutal killing of Malessa.  

'We're full of so many different emotions, but we are very grateful and thankful that he was caught,' Heather Hammock, Mooney's aunt, told KTLA Thursday. 

'Please continue to pray for our family. We just want justice for my niece.' 

Family members added that they had never met nor heard of Humphrey before and don't know how he knew Malessa. 

'She was an amazing, beautiful princess and we miss her very much,' her sister Jourdin Pauline told ABC7. 'She loved her family.' 

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has also not revealed if they know the connection between the two.

'I extend my deepest condolences to Ms. Mooney's family and loved ones as they cope with this unimaginable loss,' District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement Thursday. 

Magnus Daniel Humphrey, 41, made his first appearance in a California courtroom on Thursday, where he denied charges of murdering and torturing Mooney

Heather Hammock (pictured left), Mooney's aunt, said that the family 'are very grateful and thankful that he was caught'

'Ms. Mooney opened her home to this individual with trust, but was repaid with torture and murder. The heinous disregard for Ms. Mooney's life will not go unpunished. Justice is being sought, and he will be held accountable,' he added.

Humphrey is being held in a county jail without possibility of bail. His next hearing is scheduled for March 7.

The coroner's report said her blunt force injuries by themselves were not severe enough to have caused her death but suggest 'she was likely involved in violent physical altercation prior to her death.'

The report suggests she may have been asphyxiated, although no clear signs of  strangulation were observed.

The arrest comes five months after Mooney's family alerted cops to their concerns.  

Her family raised the alarm when their iPhone text conversations with Mooney changed from blue to green - signaling a change in WiFi and data services.  

Bailey Babb, Mooney's cousin, told KTLA that the family asked for a wellness check when she stopped answering her calls: 'When a week went by, we just knew something was off.

'Her messages weren't delivering and we knew something was up because we all have a special relationship with Maleesa.'

Tributes poured in for model Maleesa Mooney, 31

The building has a resort-style pool and sundeck and central courtyard - as well as communal BBQ grills, tennis courts, and a dog park

Mooney (right) worked as a real estate agent at Beverly Hills-based agency Nest Seekers and had only moved into her new home a month before her death, her family said

Cops entered her apartment Skye at Bunker Hill on September 12 just before 4pm and found her body, she was last seen alive on CCTV on September 6. 

On September 7, a man was seen on CCTV using her key fob to go up the elevator to her apartment, carrying plastic bags, according to the police report. 

Pauline, her popstar sister who has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, said: 'Maleesa has always been someone who is a peacemaker in our family, someone that's always been the backbone, and making sure everyone's getting together, loving on each other.

'So this is a really big piece of us that's gone now.'

She wrote in a heartfelt tribute on social media: 'Never in a million years did I think I'd have to make this post and get justice for my one & only sister my heart is crushed.

'I can't believe you won't be here with us anymore you were so loving and so kind to everyone you made sure if you ate everyone around you was too you opened your arms to people who didn't deserve you as a friend you're the best thing to happen to almost everyone's lives you touched!' 

Mooney pictured with a friend

Jourdin Pauline, her popstar sister who has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, said: 'Maleesa has always been someone who is a peacemaker in our family, someone that's always been the backbone, and making sure everyone's getting together, loving on each other'

She added: 'This feels so surreal I keep waking up crying thinking I'm in a bad dream we will get justice for you my sister I promise you won't be gone in vain!' 

Pauline said that her sister's iCloud had an alert that she was still online, which made her believe that her murderer was trying to steal and sell her iPhone and MacBook.  

The apartment building has a resort-style pool and sundeck and central courtyard - as well as communal BBQ grills, tennis courts, and a dog park.