Posted on 03/25/2004 4:31:10 AM PST by LadyShallott
A Mundy Township grandmother told her assailant she would pray for her just before she shot the elderly woman in the face.
Kimberly A. Morgan of Tennessee, charged in the death of Dorothy L. Murphy, told a forensic examiner about a brief conversation she had with Murphy just before the slaying.
The conversation was relayed during a court session Tuesday to determine if Morgan is competent for trial in Murphy's July 2 slaying.
Dr. Ellen Garver, a licensed psychologist at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry near Ann Arbor, said Morgan told her she abducted Murphy at a pharmacy because she needed her car to attack a man who was standing in the way of her resuming a sexual relationship with another woman.
After Morgan drove Murphy around for about 30 minutes, they ended up in a wooded area.
"You look desperate," Morgan said Murphy told her. "Are you leaving me out here?"
Morgan replied she was.
"I'll pray for you," Murphy then told Morgan.
Morgan, 33, told Garver she then raised up a handgun, and it fired a bullet into Murphy's face.
"I didn't intend to shoot her," Morgan said.
But once Murphy was shot, Morgan said, she had to make sure the woman was dead -- so she shot her once more in the head and once in the chest.
Morgan also told Garver she was plagued with "screaming and arguing" in her head for some time before the slaying. She said she could hear a voice that sounded like her own mother saying, "I hate you."
And Morgan also said she saw the devil for several months before and after she killed Murphy.
"I feel like I'm fighting with him," Morgan said.
Garver said she found Morgan competent for trial.
She said Morgan has never had a history of mental illness, and several tests showed that Morgan may be exaggerating her symptoms, even though she sustained a head injury in a 1999 traffic accident.
After Garver's testimony, Central District Judge John L. Conover scheduled a preliminary examination for Morgan for April 20 and 23.
Morgan is charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, kidnapping, armed robbery, arson, being a felon in possession of a firearm, felony firearms and carrying a concealed weapon in the Murphy slaying.
She also faces assault charges for shooting the boyfriend of a woman with whom she once had a relationship.
Murphy, 80, was last seen July 2 in her mobile home park off Torrey Road north of Hill Road. Relatives said she was on her way to a doctor's appointment but never made it there.
Her torched vehicle, a 1998 blue Buick, was found the same day behind Mr. Lucky's nightclub, 2351 Lapeer Road, Flint.
Police believe Murphy's vehicle was used in a Flint drive-by shooting near Third Avenue and Grand Traverse about 5 p.m. that day that left a Flint man wounded.
On Sept. 26, nearly three months after her disappearance, a Consumers Energy employee found Murphy's skeletal remains in a wooded area behind the River Forest Apartments, off River Oaks Drive in an undeveloped cul-de-sac between I-75 and the Flint River.
Morgan was stopped for speeding in Indiana as she was heading home to Tennessee after the shootings of Murphy and Alan Johnson.
She is being held without bond in the Genesee County jail and could be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted of at least one of the murder or kidnapping charges.
It.
Don'tcha just love how the liberal media words this crap.
And if her car had been a SUV, it would have burned itself, or perhaps "it" would have run over the lady.
Perhaps the POS that killed the lady did say it in that fashion, but it's a sure bet that she was only covering her own rear and this is the first step to an insanity plea.
Probably won't work, though, as the public has been well educated by the libs on just how often those awful guns jump out of glove boxes or holsters or off tables and just start shooting indiscriminately.
"I didn't intend to shoot her," Morgan said.
In that case, let her go (and write her a check)!
< / Liberal compassion >
Paul Janczewski covers federal, circuit and district courts. He can be reached at (810) 766-6333 or pjanczewski@flintjournal.com
Of course you didn't. It was that eeeevil gun that intended to kill all by itself.
Who needs a history of mental illness? Nowadays, you just need some "insanity" coaching from your defense lawyer.
Morgan, 33, told Garver she then raised up a handgun, and it fired a bullet into Murphy's face.The prayers of the good grandmother notwithstanding, IMHO, the murderer should be executed for this terrible crime.
"I didn't intend to shoot her," Morgan said.
But once Murphy was shot, Morgan said, she had to make sure the woman was dead -- so she shot her once more in the head and once in the chest.
Horrible for the family, but a quick and, most likely, not painful.
This is what Morgan told Garver; not what the newspaper made up to satisfy its liberal gun-control sensibilities. The perp is trying to use the excuse that the gun went off of its own accord.
Well, at least there is one person in the United States that will again see Jesus, face to face. How many of us, when faced with the same scenario, would have the faith and courage this woman showed?
I can only hope that if I were faced with the same dark reality of this kind of death that I would do the same. But who knows. It sounds like this humble grandmother was an amazing woman. Faith and courage indeed...this story moved me.
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