Slaying Wasn’t Premeditated, Lawyer Argues

An attorney for Edward Patrick Morgan Jr. admitted Tuesday that his client savagely killed a woman outside an Orange nightclub two years ago, but argued for a lesser murder conviction that would spare the convicted rapist a possible death sentence.

“This is not a whodunit,” defense lawyer Julian W. Bailey told an Orange County Superior Court jury as the murder trial opened.

Bailey said Morgan inflicted “unspeakable” wounds on 23-year-old Leanora Annette Wong during a “blind rage” only hours after they first met.

“It was done in rage. It was not a premeditated killing,” Bailey said, without elaborating. “It’s a classic second-degree murder.”

Morgan, 30, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and related kidnapping and sexual assault charges stemming from the May 20, 1994, slaying.

The pony-tailed Morgan stared straight ahead, his bodybuilder’s physique straining against a blue Oxford shirt, as prosecution witnesses identified him as the man who chatted with Wong and then coaxed her outside.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum said Morgan led Wong to a secluded area of the parking lot and beat her, stomping hard enough to leave his boot print on her skin and smashing her skull against a concrete wall.

Rosenblum said that during the attack, a portion of which was captured by a surveillance camera, Morgan mutilated Wong’s pelvis with a sharp object--one of the charges that could lead to the death penalty.

“What you are going to find is that this young woman was beaten mercilessly. She was beaten almost beyond recognition,” Rosenblum told jurors.

Morgan, caught in Northern California three days later, initially proclaimed his innocence in interviews with reporters. “They got me out to be some mean basher that ripped some girl apart with my bare hands,” he told The Times in a jailhouse interview a month after the killing.

Morgan’s arrest created an outcry when it was discovered that he had been charged with rape three times before, but escaped the most serious punishment each time. In a sign of how volatile the case is, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon banned media cameras from his courtroom for the trial.

Members of Wong’s family dabbed at tears as Rosenblum described how she crossed paths with a killer.

Wong, who lived in Huntington Beach and helped manage a footwear store, joined a friend for an outing at the now-defunct Australian Beach Club in Orange.

An hour after the two women arrived, a large man grabbed Wong and began talking with her. As the two chatted, Wong’s friend, Rebecca Klein, left them alone.

Testifying Tuesday, Klein looked at Morgan and said he was the man in the bar.

Klein said she saw the pair go outside shortly after 1 a.m., Morgan clutching Wong’s wrists. It was the last time she saw Wong alive.

“We’ll never know what he told her to get her back there,” Rosenblum said.

Rosenblum said Morgan led Wong to a concrete enclosure without knowing that a surveillance camera on a nearby building was capturing some of his actions in black-and-white images. A tree partially blocked the camera’s view.

The prosecutor said the beating began out of the camera’s range, but two indistinct figures then appear on the videotape played in court. One figure the prosecution says is Morgan is seen on top of the victim at one point. Rosenblum said Wong was being strangled.

Wong is then shown being dragged into the concrete enclosure, where Rosenblum said Morgan resumed the assault. The figure identified as Morgan left several times and then returned. Near the end of the tape, the attacker is seen lying down near the victim.

Wong’s body was discovered the following morning by a security guard, the surrounding pool of blood so deep it filled cracks in the concrete. A bloody hand print later was matched to Morgan, police said.

Shortly after the murder, Morgan fled to the Northern California town of Quincy, where a girlfriend lived. He was arrested by sheriff’s deputies there as he was leaving the girlfriend’s house.

In his brief opening remarks to the jury, Bailey did not explain what fed Morgan’s “horrible fit of rage,” as the attorney called it. He said the severity of the wounds indicated an unplanned rage killing, but declined to elaborate later outside the courtroom.

Morgan’s roommate, who accompanied the defendant to the bar that night, said Morgan drank at least three beers but was coherent. The roommate, Robert Bogard, said he suspected that Morgan had committed the murder, and notified police after seeing news reports describing the victim and her suspected killer.