MIDDLETOWN — - Stephen Morgan packed up all
of his belongings Tuesday and told his
father he was moving to Newport, R.I.
But police said he had a different plan — to
gun down
Wesleyan University student Johanna
Justin-Jinich. He also wrote in a journal of
a killing spree targeting Jewish people and
"beautiful and smart" Wesleyan students,
according to an arrest warrant affidavit
released Friday following Morgan's
arraignment in Superior Court on a charge of
murder.
"Kill Johanna," Morgan wrote the day of the
shooting in a journal found at the crime
scene, the affidavit states.
"She must Die."
 Johanna Justin-Jinich Credit: Facebook.com |
The six-page affidavit
offers a glimpse of what Morgan allegedly
was doing — and possibly thinking — in the
hours leading up to the deadly shooting
Wednesday of Justin-Jinich, a 21-year-old
junior at the school who police say had been
harassed and stalked by Morgan in the past. Citing the serious nature of the case, Superior Court Judge Mary-Margaret Burgdorff Friday raised Morgan's $10 million bail to $15 million during an emotional arraignment hearing. |
Morgan's mother and father and two sisters
held each other as they sat crying in the
gallery. His father, James Morgan, and his
sister, Diana, called out "Steve!" as he was
being led away by judicial marshals. Stephen
Morgan, dressed in a blue jumpsuit, shoeless
and shackled, briefly looked back at them.
The afternoon shooting prompted a nearly
two-day campus lockdown and nationwide
search for Morgan, who, according to a New
York City police report, allegedly
threatened Justin-Jinich in 2007, when they
were attending a
New York University summer program.
Morgan, 29, a former Navy petty officer,
turned himself in to police late Thursday
after public pleas from his family to
surrender. Morgan walked into a
Meriden convenience store sometime
before 10 p.m. Thursday, bought a smoothie
and asked a clerk for a phone so he could
call police.
Richard R. Brown, Morgan's defense lawyer,
said Morgan did not give a statement to
police. He called Morgan's bail excessive
and said he would argue for a reduction at a
May 19 court hearing.
Morgan, Brown said, has no prior
convictions, is not a flight risk and the
evidence shows there were no other weapons
found.
"This is a person that turned himself in
when he didn't have to," Brown said.
Moreover, Brown said that Morgan "denies any
effort to target the Wesleyan campus or
anywhere" in general. Brown said Morgan and
Justin-Jinich had been classmates in New York. He said he didn't know if they
knew each other before then, or about the
nature of their relationship.
"Obviously they knew each other, obviously
they communicated with each other — anything
beyond that, I don't know."
The warrant sheds little light on the
relationship between Morgan and Justin-Jinich.
Her father, Daniel Jinich, told detectives
his daughter was "having problems with a
male stalking her" in 2007. The affidavit
cites the New York City Police Department report
saying Morgan was harassing and threatening
Justin-Jinich through calls and e-mails.
According to the affidavit, James Morgan
told police he last saw his son at 11 p.m.
Tuesday. On Wednesday, Stephen Morgan
traveled to Connecticut in a 2001 Nissan and
checked into Room 206 at the Best Way Inn in
Middlefield.
That same day, Morgan shared his thoughts in
a composition notebook he kept in a computer
bag. Around 11 a.m., Morgan recalls "seeing
all the beautiful and smart people" at
Wesleyan, according to the affidavit. "I
think it okay to kill Jews, and go on a
killing spree at this school."
And then he mentions one Jewish person in
particular, the warrant states.
"Kill Johanna. She must Die."
At about 1 p.m.,
witnesses at Broad Street Books reported
hearing loud "popping" noises and seeing a
man wearing what looked like an ill-fitting
wig, a baseball cap and eyeglasses running
from the first floor to the basement.
Steven Hebenstriet, the general manager of
the store, told police he saw the shooter
"do a somersault and then jump off" a
conveyor belt in the basement. At one point,
the men came face to face. The gunman
pointed the firearm at Hebenstriet and
warned: "Don't say anything or I'll shoot."
Morgan shed his disguise before police
arrived, according to the warrant, and
talked briefly to Middletown
police Officer William Porter. When
questioned, Morgan gave his name and told
the officer he was from Boulder, Colo.
Police took his information and let him go.
Inside the store, Justin-Jinich lay
seriously wounded behind the cafe sales
counter, "moaning and shaking." She was
taken to Middlesex Hospital, where she was
later pronounced dead.
Police found a wig,
eyeglasses and a black T-shirt with a
handgun wrapped inside it in the building.
Outside, Morgan's car was still in the
parking lot, the affidavit states. Inside
the car, police found a handgun case and
ammunition.
Early Wednesday morning,
Massachusetts
police went to the Morgan's family's home in
Marblehead, Mass., where his father
identified his son as a man carrying a
firearm in a surveillance photo taken at the
store at the time of the shooting.
James Morgan told police his son was a
loner, quiet and had few friends.
"James said that his son kept a journal and
he has known him to make anti-Jewish
comments," the affidavit states.
Morgan graduated in 1998 from St. John's
Preparatory School, an all-boys Catholic
school in Danvers, Mass.
Outside the courtroom Friday, James Morgan
said he talked briefly to Stephen — who has
six siblings — after his arrest. When asked
how he was doing, James Morgan simply shook
his head and declined to comment further.
Brown said that Morgan's parents feel the
accusation of murder is inconsistent with
the person they know and that they feel
"very, very bad" for Justin-Jinich's family.
He said his client is also struggling.
"Not that anybody would have any sympathy
for him," Brown said.
A few Wesleyan students attended Friday's
court hearing.
Justin Bores, a junior from Bethesda, Md.,
said Justin-Jinich had mentioned Morgan
previously, but only in passing. "She was a
wonderful person," he said.
His friend, Seth Halpern, a senior from New Haven,
said, "I was very close to her, and I felt
the need to be here."
