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State v. Morris2/5/1999
f the duplex and the two young women entered the residence. Angela found her husband in bed, but awake, with the light turned on. Shortly thereafter, Erica went outside to get a cassette tape she had left in Angela's car.
Angela heard Erica re-enter the duplex. Angela also thought that she heard Erica scream. Erica then appeared at the bedroom door accompanied by the appellant, the couple's neighbor from the adjoining duplex, who was holding a shotgun to Erica's head.
The appellant confronted Charles Ragland and demanded to know "where the dope was." Charles replied that he did not have any "dope." By this time, the appellant, who was aiming the shotgun at Charles, had shoved Erica onto the bed with Angela and Charles. Charles, in an effort to appease the appellant, asked if he wanted money. However, the appellant said he did not want money and that he would look for the "dope" himself. Angela observed that the appellant was talking fast, was sweating, and appeared intoxicated. The appellant then ordered Charles onto the floor, placed a pillow against his head, and fired one shot, instantly killing Charles Ragland.
The appellant then placed fifteen year old Erica into a closet and instructed Angela to lay in her son's bedroom on her stomach with her face towards the window. The appellant removed the mattress from the bed and placed it against the window "so nobody could see if they walked by." Meanwhile, he had Angela warn Erica that, if she came out of the closet, he would "blow her head off." He tied Angela's wrists and ankles with a belt, shoe strings, and some clothes, preventing her from leaving the bedroom. The appellant walked out of the bedroom and took Erica out of the closet. Although Angela could not see them, she could hear Erica pleading with the appellant not to kill her and that "she would not tell anybody."
Angela also heard the appellant tell Erica "to shut up." Then, the hitting began. Angela heard the appellant hitting Erica with "something;" the beating lasting for about twenty minutes. Angela could hear Erica screaming, then gasping. "She was trying to breathe, then it went quiet." Erica was later found to have died from multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma to the head inflicted during this assault.
The appellant, still armed with the shotgun, returned to the bedroom where Angela remained bound to the bed. He told Angela that he had been working all day and that he needed a bath. He forced Angela to bathe him. The appellant dried himself with a sheet from one of the beds. He told Angela that he wanted her to wear something "sexy," and proceeded to rummage through Angela's dresser drawers looking for satisfactory attire. The appellant finally emerged holding a negligee and made Angela change. The appellant then stated that he was hungry and asked Angela to make him something to eat. Angela prepared the appellant "a sandwich and some Kool-Aid," which he ate, all the while maintaining a tight hold on the shotgun.
When the appellant finished eating, he, again, led Angela into the child's bedroom, laid the shotgun on a nearby bed, and forced Angela to have sexual intercourse with him three to four times. He also forced Angela to perform oral sex upon him.
At some point during the ordeal, the appellant remarked that "he had been [falsely] accused of raping someone. . . and if he was going to go to jail, he was going to go to jail for doing something." He also told Angela that "society was the reason that he was doing what he did. He said that society made him the way he was." The appellant continued to state:
Around 6:30 a.m., the appellant heard his wife moving around in their adjoining duplex.
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