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Parents still searching for answers in son's death
By Loretta Tackett (APPALACHIAN NEWS EXPRESS) Staff Writer
02/07/2008
It was early on the morning of New Year's Day, 2002, when Jerry Neil Morgan, 24, fell from a second-floor balcony in Pikeville. Six years later, his family thinks he was murdered, but have found few answers from police.
"We were in shock," said Jerry Morgan about the death of his namesake. "We're still tortured over it."
Judy Morgan said her son would have been 30 in July, and she doesn't think his death was an accident or suicide, as first ruled by police.
The News-Express reported police were called to the home of Karla Chapman — who received national media attention in the mid '90s when she wore black lipstick to school — after another guest found Morgan lying on his back outside the residence at Scott Avenue and Third Street.
Pikeville Police Officer John Hunt told media Morgan had apparently fallen over the railing of the balcony and landed on his head, causing "blunt-force trauma to the top of his head," as well as several other lacerations and contusions. Hunt said the railing surrounding the edge of the balcony did not give way and was only broken at one spot, but did not indicate it caused Morgan to fall.
"It wasn't a very high porch," Judy Morgan said. "At first we took everybody's word, because we were in shock."
The death certificate described acute subdural hematoma, acute cerebral contusions and lacerations, fractures on top and base of skull, and blunt force injury to the left front portion of the head and the front temporal scalp. On the section describing how the injury occurred, the certified death certificate says Morgan went off the second-floor porch to sidewalk.
"He had all these places. You don't fall and have places like that," Judy Morgan said.
"We didn't know what to do because we didn't want to get in trouble, but we feel it was drug-related in a sense, that people involved were afraid he would talk," Jerry Morgan said. "We feel like we were let down by the city and politicians. It's like nobody wanted to touch it."
When the Morgans called the PPD looking for Det. Bruce Anderson, Judy Morgan claims police did not tell them Anderson had left the force and did not pass them on to anyone else.
About the crime scene and those present at the time, Jerry Morgan said "there were kids coming in and out all night," many of whom were interviewed and taped by Anderson, and who said Jerry Neil Morgan was threatened all night by one guy who was trying to make him fight.
"We talked to people there, but so much stuff was told," Judy Morgan said.
Although Jerry Neil Morgan spent six months in jail for holding up a pharmacy at Marrowbone with an assault rifle Dec. 29, 2000, attempting to get the OxyContin to which he had become addicted when hurt at work, Judy Morgan said he was off drugs when he was "murdered."
Hunt reported there was alcohol, marijuana and drug paraphernalia found at the scene of the party Morgan was attending, and could have contributed to the accident.
"I pursued it really hard at first myself," Judy Morgan said.
"He was raised in church and he wasn't trailer trash," said Jerry Morgan. "He was better than that."
The police report of the original death investigation says John Atkinson called on Jan. 1, 2002, and said a 24-year-old male had fallen from a balcony and told the 911 dispatcher he was unconscious, breathing with difficulty and bleeding severely from his nose. The dispatcher told Atkinson not to move the body, but Atkinson had stated they pulled Morgan inside the apartment building. When EMS arrived on the scene at 2:17 a.m., they requested police due to unruly persons at the scene, the report says, adding officer Sandy Reed, Hunt and Sgt. Rick Harris responded. Morgan was transported to Pikeville Medical Center at 2:33 a.m. with a weak pulse and shallow breathing, and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3:03 a.m.
Asserting Morgan had attended the party at his girlfriend Chapman's apartment with several of her friends he had met for the first time for a night of drinking, the report said others at the party said Morgan went out onto the balcony and it was the last time anyone saw him until they started to look for Morgan, at which time Chapman and Atkinson found him on the ground. All persons at the scene were intoxicated and were let go by officers and no detectives were called to the scene to conduct interviews, the report says.
"I was given the case on Jan. 2, 2002," Anderson says in the police report. "I contacted the Deputy Corner Zeb Hampton who was investigating the case for the coroners office. I made a request for an autopsy and found that Morgan had already been embalmed. Morgan was removed from burial and transported to Kentucky Medical Examiners office after family signed release for an autopsy."
"Myself, along with Det. Mike Blackburn went to the scene on Jan. 2, 2002 and no physical evidence was found where the body was except for some drops of blood which was sent to the medical examiner's office," Anderson wrote. "On the balcony, two of the railings were broken, apparently from Morgan's fall, however, Daniel Oriea, who was at the party, stated to me he had kicked out one of the railings in anger over Morgan's death. Daniel Oriea did not know Morgan. The night of the party was the first time the two met."
The report says there was no evidence at Chapman's apartment where the party was held, but when Anderson and Blackburn went there, she had on a pair of pants covered in dried blood, as she said she was holding Morgan on the night of his death. The pants were also sent to the crime lab.
The report said the case is open and more interviews and exams are pending.
The News-Express has made repeated requests to the PPD as to whether the Morgan case is active and unsolved or ruled an accident and closed, but police have failed to respond.
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More to come.
