A
Utah man who previously avoided prosecution for his girlfriend's death is now facing homicide charges for that alleged crime.
On Feb. 18, 2023, Morgan Kay Harris, 27, died in a fire while she was trapped inside the storage unit she and her boyfriend called home – along with her dog, Huck.
In May 2024, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill all but exonerated the boyfriend, Alexander Paul Wardell, 33, saying a lengthy investigation did not point to him starting the fire.
On Thursday, the Beehive State's top law enforcement official took the reins – and took the case in the exact opposite direction. Wardell now stands accused of
murder or, alternatively,
manslaughter, according to the Utah Attorney General's Office. He is also charged with one count each of
kidnapping and aggravated
animal cruelty.
Wardell allegedly admitted he closed the storage unit and then locked the door — knowing the woman and the dog were inside — while he walked over to a nearby Walmart, according to Salt Lake City police.
In the immediate aftermath of Harris' death, Wardell was arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide and kidnapping.
Again, Gill had an answer to his office's critics. The DA said there was simply no evidence that either inhabitant of those poor quarters did anything other than lock the door each time they left. The prosecutor also said there was no evidence Harris was held there against her will.
"How do I prove she did not consent to that? With what evidence do I do that? Who do I put on the stand?" he asked out loud in comments
reported by KSL at the time. "We found no evidence going through her phone, his phone, all the material that we could gather, that led us to get to any of that point … we looked. We scoured, we looked if there was any humanly possible way to articulate to meet those elements for the purpose of filing charges. We could not get there."
The initial decision not to follow up Wardell's arrest with an indictment soon led to a broader indictment of the Utah justice system itself. The boyfriend, it turned out, had previously been convicted of domestic violence on two separate occasions. In fact, two days before she died, Harris bailed Wardell out of jail for the second time; he had been arrested for violating his probation on the latest domestic violence conviction. As of his indictment, Wardell is in the Utah State Correctional Facility serving time for those convictions.
"The justice system failed before she died in that he was a convicted criminal, convicted and sentenced to five years, which he never served, and was still allowed to even be around another woman," Harris' mother
told KSL in May 2024.
Still, yet more evidentiary barriers prohibited the local DA from moving forward. One of the final major questions was the position of Harris' body. Gill said it did not appear she even made it to the door during the fire – so the fact of the unit being locked was "irrelevant in her manner of death." In sum, the DA said it would not be "ethical" to indict Wardell based on the evidence he was able to marshal.
You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.
www.foxnews.com
www.facebook.com
antifeministpraxis.wordpress.com
kjzz.com
lawandcrime.com
