A man pleaded guilty to murdering his estranged girlfriend this morning, moments before his trial was due to start.Jermaine Pearman, 37, slit the throat of 23-year-old prison officer Shakeya DeRoza, cut her jugular vein and stabbed her in the heart on July 10 2009.She managed to escape from the scene of the attack at her home in Sandys, but collapsed and died outside a shop a short distance away.Pearman was apprehended on the railway trail in the same parish, armed with a knife and suffering from a self-inflicted neck wound.He was due to stand trial for premeditated murder, which he denied, but pleaded guilty to a lesser but included count of murder. He denied carrying a bladed article in a public place.Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Carrington Mahoney accepted the pleas, which were then formally returned as verdicts on the direction of Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves.Ms DeRoza worked as a corrections officer at the Co-ed facility and this afternoon, Commissioner of Corrections Lt Col Edward Lamb issued a statement about the case.He said: "The news that Pearman had pleaded guilty to the murder of Officer DeRoza was a relief for me personally, and for the whole Corrections Department."It has always been our hope that Ms DeRoza’s family would be spared the ordeal of going to trial as we have already watched them endure enough tribulation."Ms DeRoza was a fine officer and we are still grappling with her untimely and tragic death."We continue to keep her memory alive by way of a beautiful memorial in one of our facilities as well as through regular contact with her lovely family."Now that the legal matter is over, her family can now focus their energy on raising her adorable children, to whom we in Corrections have become very attached and dedicated."Pearman was remanded into custody and will be sentenced on Friday.