Murder Victim’s Kin Weeps Before Jury

Family members cried Wednesday as they described a shy young woman who brought them 23 years of smiles and laughter before she was beaten to death outside an Orange nightclub two years ago.

“We miss her a lot. . . . She always talked to us and made us laugh,” said Nora Wong, the mother of Leanora Annette Wong, the UC Riverside graduate who had only recently moved from her family’s home to help manage an Orange County footwear store. “Now the family is so quiet.”

Family members testified before an Orange County Superior Court jury that is considering whether convicted killer Edward Patrick Morgan, 30, should receive a death sentence.

Morgan sought to take the witness stand shortly after Wong’s parents and brother finished testifying, telling his attorney he wanted to apologize to the family and spare further grief by ending the trial’s penalty phase without calling any witnesses on his behalf.

Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon told Morgan he would have to wait until Monday, when the defense portion of the penalty phase was scheduled to resume.

The judge urged Morgan to carefully consider his request, saying that if he failed to call any additional defense witnesses, he could not later claim he did not receive a full hearing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum called Morgan’s request an attempt at “manipulating this system.”

The unexpected exchange was yet another twist in a trial that has been as unusual for its brevity as for its gruesome nature.

Jurors deliberated two hours last week before finding Morgan, of Orange, guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. The jurors also found that the May 20, 1994, slaying occurred during a kidnapping and sexual attack with a foreign object, findings that make him eligible for the death penalty.

During the trial’s guilt phase, the defense did not call any witnesses. Defense attorney Julian W. Bailey contended Morgan did not plan to kill Wong, but acted in a “blind rage.”

The prosecutor said Morgan deliberately led the Huntington Beach woman, whom he had just met, to a secluded area outside the now-defunct Australian Beach Club and beat and stomped her. She had also been strangled. Part of the attack was captured by a surveillance camera.

Earlier Wednesday, jurors heard more about Morgan’s past rape convictions, this time from a young woman whose assault a decade earlier included striking similarities to Wong’s attack.

The woman, 16 at the time, said Morgan seemed like a nice guy when she met him at a party on Oct. 21, 1984. He asked her to take a walk outside, and she agreed.

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Once outside, the woman said, he turned violent, forced her into a dark, secluded area between two houses and threatened to kill her with a knife as he ripped off her clothes.

The woman testified Morgan struck her several times, and pounded her head against the ground “because I wouldn’t stop crying.”

Finally, the woman said, she pretended to pass out as he raped her “so he would stop.”

“All I was thinking was just staying alive,” she testified.

Morgan served time in prison on the rape conviction. Two other victims testified Tuesday they too had been raped by Morgan when they were 16, although their 1983 and 1990 cases were “plea bargained” to unlawful sex with a minor.