Jury Hears of Killer’s Other Sexual Assaults

Long before Leanora Annette Wong was sexually assaulted and pummeled to death outside an Orange nightclub two years ago, the ex-con who killed her had a history of preying upon “vulnerable, young women,” a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

Edward Patrick Morgan’s past three rape and statutory rape convictions were revealed to jurors for the first time Tuesday as the panel began to consider a possible death sentence.

A former high school sweetheart described him as a seemingly normal young man who turned violent when she tried to break off their relationship. A second woman sobbed as she described how Morgan offered a friendly ride when she was a teen and then attacked her in a secluded alley. A third victim--who Morgan was convicted of raping outside a high school party--is expected to testify today.

“Based on the offenses this man has committed, and because of his past, I’m going to be asking the maximum sentence in this case,” prosecutor Lewis Rosenblum told jurors.

The same Orange County Superior Court jury that convicted Morgan of the May 20, 1994, mutilation murder of Wong--the 23-year-old assistant manager of a footwear store--must now decide if he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Rosenblum said Morgan, a 30-year-old Orange resident, has been assaulting young women since 1983, when he donned a ski mask and broke into the home of his 16-year-old girlfriend.

That case, and one other, was later plea-bargained down to unlawful sex with a minor, but Rosenblum told jurors there was nothing consensual about what Morgan did to the two victims who testified Tuesday. Both were 16 at the time.

In a brief opening statement as the trial’s penalty phase got underway, Morgan’s attorney told jurors that Morgan’s two unlawful sex convictions involved consensual relations.

Defense attorney Julian Bailey said he will be seeking a sentence of life without parole, although he did not indicate what type of testimony he will be introducing in his effort to spare Morgan’s life.

During the trial’s guilt phase, the defense attorney contended Morgan did not plan to kill Wong, but acted in a “blind rage.”

The prosecutor said Morgan led the Huntington Beach woman, whom he had just met, to a secluded area outside the now-defunct Australian Beach Club and beat her, stomping hard enough to leave his boot print on her skin and smashing her skull against a concrete wall. Her body also showed signs of strangulation. Part of the attack was captured by a surveillance camera.

Jurors deliberated two hours last week before finding Morgan guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. The jurors also found that the killing occurred during a kidnapping and sexual attack with a foreign object, findings that could result in the death penalty.

Morgan’s first victim, who dated the defendant in 1983 while they attended the same Orange County high school, was the first witness to testify in the trial’s penalty phase.

“He was very charming,” the woman, now 29, testified. “When we first started dating, it was a normal high school-type relationship.”

But the relationship soon changed when Morgan hit and bruised her lip during a fight, prompting the first of several breakups and a series of obscene and threatening phone calls, the woman testified. The calls, she said, always stopped when she resumed dating Morgan.

The woman testified she and Morgan had parted for good on Oct. 15, 1983, when a masked intruder--with the same voice as the crank caller--broke into her house, where she and her younger sister were home alone. Morgan had knocked at her window minutes earlier, but she said she had told him to go away.

After spying the intruder, the woman testified she fled to her mother’s room, locked the door and was calling 911 when the man broke the door down and carried her away, raping her outside in a dark corner.

“Was this consensual in any manner?” the prosecutor asked.

“No,” she responded.

The woman said she was ashamed and embarrassed during initial interviews with police, and admits she named Morgan only as a possible suspect. But she said she knew it was him from the start. She said she recognized his walk, his shoulders, his body.

“That was enough,” she said.

The woman said she positively identified Morgan as her assailant a year later when he was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl he had lured from a party.

Morgan served time in prison following the convictions in the two cases, the prosecutor said.

In a third case dating back to 1990, Rosenblum said, Morgan sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl after offering her a ride and teaching her a drinking game known as “quarters.”

The victim, now 22, testified Morgan had been nice and even handed her his wallet and driver’s license to ease her fears about getting into his truck.

He changed, she testified, after leading her to a secluded spot and forcing sex on her over her protests. The woman said Morgan drove her home following the attack and asked for her phone number.

She testified she gave him her number to make it easier to catch him if she decided to tell authorities, which she did the next day. A week later when he called and came over, she called the police. Morgan eventually pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in her case.

The plea bargains sparked outrage after Morgan’s arrest in Wong’s murder from many who believe the criminal justice system had failed to protect society from him.