Christian Ferdinand guilty of suffocating Shaniesha Forbes to death

• The charred body of 14-year-old Shaniesha Forbes was found stuffed in a suitcase which washed up on a Brooklyn, New York beach in January 2013
• Christian Ferdinand, the 22-year-old boyfriend she met on Facebook, was arrested four months later for her murder
• Ferdinand confessed to killing Forbes, saying he snapped after she told him she was pregnant and refused to get an abortion
• An autopsy later revealed she was not carrying a child
• On Monday, a jury found Ferdinand guilty of murder and he faces between 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month

By Ashley Collman for MailOnline

Published: 10:13 EST, 2 December 2014 | Updated: 10:42 EST, 2 December 2014

A 22-year-old man was found guilty on Monday for suffocating his teen girlfriend to death after she told him she was pregnant and wouldn't have an abortion.

The body of 14-year-old Shaniesha Forbes was found charred and stuffed in a suitcase that washed up on Brooklyn, New York beach in January 2013 and an autopsy revealed she wasn't actually carrying a baby.

Christian Ferdinand, the older boyfriend she met through Facebook, was arrested four months later in Maine and confessed to the crime.

'He intentionally smothered a 14-year-old girl to death and burned her body to get rid of the evidence,' prosecutor Robert Walsh said during the trial. 'He had a problem that needed solving, he didn’t want to pay child support, and Shaniesha got in the way.'

Guilty: Christian Ferdinand, 22 (left), was found guilty on Monday for the January 2013 murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Shaniesha Forbes (right). He faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month

It took a jury just an hour on Monday to convict Ferdinand with murder, and he now faces between 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month.

'I hope he won’t see the light of day again,' the victim’s mother, Sandra Price, told the New York Daily News after the verdict was read on Monday. 'I will never see my baby again.'

Forbes, who was a freshman at the Academy for Young Writers in Williamsburg, allegedly first infuriated her boyfriend when she told him she was pregnant via text message in January 2013.

Ferdinand responded to the announcement by texting back: 'My n****, are you serious? Kill that s***'

Admission: Ferdinand confessed to killing Forbes four months after her body washed up on a Brooklyn, New York beach (pictured above). He told investigators he killed her because she told him he was pregnant

Gruesome: Forbes was suffocated to death with a leather pillow. Ferdinand dumped her body in the ocean. Above, a picture of the scene where Forbes' body was found

But Forbes made it clear that she would not get an abortion, saying it would hurt her religious mother.

The couple later met at Ferdinand's cousin's house where Forbes continued to talk about the pregnancy while they were both sitting on the couch.

That's when Ferdinand snapped and grabbed a leather pillow to suffocate his girlfriend to death.

Investigators asked Ferdinand if Forbes fought back as he was killing her, and he replied: 'She tried, wasn't much of a struggle, she was little.'

After she died, Ferdinand proceeded to douse her body in Axe body spray which he used to set the corpse on fire with a Bic lighter.

He later stuffed her body in a suitcase which he tossed into Gerriston Bay, believing the saltwater would destroy any evidence left on Forbes' body after the burning. The body was later found when the suitcase washed up on Gerriston Beach.

It was also revealed in the course of the trial, that Ferdinand spoke casually about Forbes' killing to a friend.

Promising future: Forbes was a freshman at the Academy of Young Writers in Williamsburg at the time of her death

'I hope he won’t see the light of day again,' the victim’s mother, Sandra Price, told the New York Daily News after the verdict was read on Monday. 'I will never see my baby again.'

'It didn't deserve to live' Ferdinand told a friend, according to testimony.

He also booked into a hotel with an ex-girlfriend the day after the murder. The unnamed ex allegedly wanted to have sex with Ferdinand but he told her he was too tired.

And when he confessed to the crime in May 2013, Ferdinand was bold enough to ask for a light sentence.

'So you think I can get some kind of community service?' Ferdinand asked investigators, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.

When he heard the jury's guilty verdict on Monday, Ferdinand lowered his head onto the defense table and appeared to tear up. Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson ensured that his office would seek the maximum sentence of life in prison for the crime.

'He deserves much worse,' Forbes' 22-year-old sister Shaquana told the Daily News.