On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Anthony J Mellaci said that if New Jersey still had the death penalty that the Monmouth man in front of him, Arthur E. Morgan III, convicted of murdering his 2.5 year-old daughter, “would be candidate number 1.”
Instead, Morgan received life in prison without the possibility of parole for Murder, Child Endangerment, and Interfering with Custody.
It was on November 21, 2011, that Morgan, who was homeless at the time, picked up his daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover from the young girl’s home in Lakehurst, telling her mother that he was taking her to see the movie, “Happy Feet.” Instead he took Tierra to a bridge in the Shark River Park, strapped her securely into her car seat, weighted the car seat down with a metal car jack and dropped his young daughter 17 feet to the water below.
After leaving the scene of his grisly crime, Morgan met up with a friend, went to the liquor store before making good his escape to San Diego.
Teenagers found the young child in the river the next day.
Morgan was the subject of a nation-wide manhunt and ultimately captured on November 29th, 2011 in San Diego.When questioned later by investigators, Morgan insisted that the small child was alive and still crying after he dropped the girl into the river and turned and walked away. He also told investigators that he had tethered the jack to the seat to weigh her down “like a ball and chain.”
His defense attorney at trial, attempted to convince the jury that Morgan had carried out the killing of his daughter because he was not thinking clearly because of his homelessness, joblessness and lack of sleep. They also stated that he killed her because he was concerned about her living conditions. The defense asked the jury to instead convict Morgan for reckless manslaughter.
But, prosecutors in the case pointed out that during his time of homelessness, that he spent all of his money on designer clothes instead of trying to improve his daughter’s living conditions.
They said, instead, that Morgan killed Tierra because the baby’s mother had broken off their engagement.
The prosecutors also related to the jury that Morgan had planned out the crime and had pawned items beforehand and had made arraignments to escape to San Diego prior to carrying out the murder.
Also introduced at trial was the testimony of the young child’s mother. In her testimony, she told the jury that Morgan had written to her as he sat in jail awaiting trial. In the letter, she said that he had written that his crime should be made into a movie, telling her “Don’t just let anyone play me.”
When the jury came back with a verdict of “Guilty” on April 3rd of this year, and Morgan was being led from the courtroom, Morgan, dressed fashionably in a designer suit, flashed a smile and winked at the prosecutors.
At his sentencing today, Morgan was no longer dressed fashionably, instead he was garbed in a prison uniform.
Before sentencing, Morgan spoke to the court and to his estranged girlfriend specifically. He said, I want to say I’m sorry for the deterioration of what I thought was a beautiful friendship between the two of us that blossomed into a daughter. For anybody that was truly affected by this, I hope we can all heal from this situation, knowing Tierra is in a better place.”
He never apologized for killing the young child.
New Jersey Man, Arthur Morgan, Sentenced for Murder of Young daughter added by Staff on
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