James Daniel Morgan pleaded guilty to manslaughter, with sentencing delivered earlier this month in B.C. Supreme Court.
He admitted to killing the person who picked him up while hitchhiking on the Alaska Highway decades ago has been sentenced to just one day in jail after a B.C. judge considered the “unique circumstances” of the case.
James Daniel Morgan pleaded guilty to manslaughter, with sentencing delivered earlier this month in B.C. Supreme Court.
The court heard that Morgan, a U.S. citizen and convicted felon, was picked up by James Curtis Hamrick on Sept. 8, 2001.
The two traveled through the Yukon into British Columbia, but two days later at a rest stop, Morgan launched a brutal and unprovoked attack on Hamrick, striking him repeatedly in the head with two hammers and spraying him with bear spray. Though fatally injured, Hamrick was still alive when Morgan dragged him off the rest area and fled. Morgan abandoned Hamrick’s belongings in B.C., drove to Vancouver, ditched the truck, and crossed into the U.S. under an alias.
In 2002, while in custody in California for a parole violation, Morgan gave a DNA sample and confessed during interviews to killing Hamrick, as well as admitting to a separate murder in Denver, Colorado, prior to the Alaska trip. He was later convicted of the Colorado murder and sentenced to 48 years in prison.
Given that the sentence would likely have been imposed concurrent to the much lengthier sentence for the Colorado murder, Crown and the defence argued it had effectively been served. Further, the court heard that the outstanding charge in Canada “negatively impacted” Morgan’s prospects of parole in Colorado, potentially resulting in his continued incarceration despite parole eligibility.
“It is likely Mr. Morgan will die before he finishes his sentence in Colorado,” the judge wrote.
-with files from Lisa Steacy CTV Vanc.
Add comment
Comments