PA - Robert Morris for killing four babies, Roxborough, 1995 to 2003

aussiegran

New Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Messages
979
Reaction score
42
But in what was called a "compromised verdict," he was acquitted of charges of killing two others in 1995.
Roxborough man was convicted yesterday of third-degree murder in the smothering deaths of his two infant boys but acquitted on charges of murdering his two baby girls several years earlier.
Robert Morris, 28, faces life in prison without parole for killing his two sons: Robert Jr., who was slain one month after his 2002 birth, and Jhayden, who was killed in 2003 at 3 months old.

The jury cleared Morris in the 1995 deaths of two baby girls, Shainara and LaShai Payne. Those children, who were born to another of Morris' girlfriends, were smothered on the same night as they slept in separate beds.

Jurors were not available for comment, but Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron and defense attorney Daniel Greene agreed that they had probably reached a "compromised verdict."

"I'm rather surprised," Cameron said. "We all thought that, if it was going to be not guilty, it would have been on the second of the two murders, which the medical examiner had initially ruled as natural deaths. The jury did just the opposite."

Also baffling, Cameron said, was the jury's decision to convict Morris of third-degree murder. The city's deputy medical examiner, Ian Hood, had testified that it would have taken approximately four minutes to suffocate each of the infants, indicating that a killing would have been deliberate and intentional.

"If you're going to convict, it's got to be first-degree," Cameron said. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

The verdict capped a bizarre saga that began June 4, 1995, when police were called to the East Germantown apartment where two baby girls of Morris and Damika Payne, then 17, were found dead in their beds.

The deaths were classified as homicides by asphyxia, and Morris was questioned three times by detectives. However, with three people present in the apartment that night, investigators made little headway and the case went cold.

By 2002, Morris had moved in with another girlfriend, Kerry Longacre, who gave birth to his son, Robert Jr., that autumn.

When the baby died after just four weeks, the medical examiner ruled it a natural case of sudden infant death syndrome. At that point, investigators had no information connecting Morris to the 1995 deaths.

In December 2003, Longacre's second boy died under similar circumstances. The death was ruled a natural case of pneumonia, but a tip from Damika Payne's family allowed investigators to finally piece together Morris' proximity to all four infant deaths.

The medical examiner reclassified the latter two deaths as homicides, and Morris was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Kerry Longacre was not in court for yesterday's verdict.

Payne was too upset to speak to a reporter. Her mother, Tyne Robinson, broke down in tears after Morris was cleared of killing her granddaughters.

"I don't think justice was served for my family, for my grandkids I don't have anymore," Robinson said. "It's really horrible."
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13808094.htm
..........................................
:banghead: 4 of his own babies .What a .I cant believe this story .
 
Unbelievable, those poor babies.....please someone hold him down and smother him in prison....please, please, please
 
please someone hold him down and smother him in prison....please, please, please

I'll never believe that 2 wrongs make a right. Or that violence justifies more violence. People don't murder their own offspring unless there is mental illness involved.

Forever imprisoned will be his sentence, no chance of parole. That suffices.
 
Oh, I don't know about that. I firmly believe that not only is this world filled with people who have healthy mentalties as well as those with mental illnesses, this world is also filled with people who are good, and people who are just plain EVIL . And in the cases of those whose moral fabric is made up of evil, well...an eye for an eye. ESPECIALLY when such heinous and unspeakable acts are committed against the most innocent among us...children. Right or wrong, if it was MY child that this monster smothered, be assured that I would want nothing less for him than to suffer the same fate.

The facts in this story lead me to believe that this man was just a horrible, evil, sorry excuse for a person who thrived on murdering innocent babies. Shame on him.
 
julianne said:
Oh, I don't know about that. I firmly believe that not only is this world filled with people who have healthy mentalties as well as those with mental illnesses, this world is also filled with people who are good, and people who are just plain EVIL . And in the cases of those whose moral fabric is made up of evil, well...an eye for an eye. ESPECIALLY when such heinous and unspeakable acts are committed against the most innocent among us...children. Right or wrong, if it was MY child that this monster smothered, be assured that I would want nothing less for him than to suffer the same fate.

The facts in this story lead me to believe that this man was just a horrible, evil, sorry excuse for a person who thrived on murdering innocent babies. Shame on him.
:clap: Totally agree!!
 
No way, evil is evil. I do believe that mental illness is real but the facts don't support it in this case. I'm with you Julianne, Evil needs to be punished. Thank goodness Bubba is evil too......
 
Robert L. Morris

Housed: SCI Albion
Sentence Date: 03/06/2006
04/03/2006 - Appealed to Superior Court
10/01/2009 - Sentence Affirmed
03/17/2010 - Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal.

Offense: 3rd Degree Murder
Sentence: 20-40 years

Offense: 3rd Degree Murder
Sentence: Life

Sentences are consecutive.

Prior Charges

Arrest Date: 09/12/1996 -Theft by Receiving Stolen Property - Dismissed

Arrest Date: 10/17/1996 - Possession of a Controlled Substance - Dismissed

Arrest Date: 03/21/2000 - Guilty - Probation
Mfg/Del/or Poss W/I Mfg or Del Control Subs
CSA-PWID-Conspiracy
Possession of a Controlled Substance
CSA-Possession of Paraphernalia

Arrest Date: 01/04/2001 - All Charges Withdrawn
Robbery
Theft by Receiving Stolen Property
Recklessly Endangering Another Person
Carrying Firearms without a License
Theft by Unlawful Taking or Disposition
Simple Assault
Possessing Instruments of Crime-Weapon
Carrying Firearms/Public Street or Place
 
so what the girls lives had no value to the jury?

i seriously wonder what juries think when they go back to deliberate.

being on the end of a bogus 'compromise verdict' this annoys me all the more.
 
I'm assuming they had the same trouble as the police. There were 3 people in the apartment. I think they probably believed that he did it, but there was still reasonable doubt, because of the other people. I'm definitely a little hung up on the 3rd degree though. Thankfully, the judge sentenced him as though it was 1st anyway, so it's all good. As long as he is never free again to create or hurt another little baby.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
183
Guests online
2,291
Total visitors
2,474

Forum statistics

Threads
589,962
Messages
17,928,403
Members
228,020
Latest member
DazzelleShafer
Back
Top