Jerry Wayne Morgan, the first Three Strikes case to be overturned, took a plea for time served in order to obtain his freedom.  The Judge has ordered that he will be released from Shasta County Jail. 

I attended the hearing on Monday, April 21, 2003, and overheard some of the negotiation between the Deputy District Attorney Woods, and Attorney Richard Maxion.  Woods would not budge an inch on time served, as the Penal Code §273.5 that he was forced to plead to happened in Tehama County, Shasta County never had jurisdiction to even charge him with this crime.  So who are the real crooks here?  Then the DA insisted that he plead to One Strike, which was overturned by the Third Appellate District, stating that they could not use them as strikes.  But this was a cover their behind by the District Attorney and Shasta County.  The Attorney tried his best, but this was the only deal that they would accept, and Jerry was tired, a bad heart and wanted his freedom. 

Some nice lady I believe from the Jail called and left a message on my machine, that High Desert had a hold on Morgan and he would have to go there to be released.  That got my dander up as that is where the guards set up an attempted murder against Morgan, his having showed me the scar on his jaw when the handmade knife missed his throat by an inch.  So I called the Jail and got a young man who looked at computer, and told me that the computer said that High Desert had released their hold and he should be out this evening or midnight. 

When I woke up on the 22nd I called neighbor, have you heard from Jerry yet?  He hadn’t so I asked if he would call the Jail and see what is going on, which he did call and found out that his paperwork was in a mess.  Recently neighbor had gone to the Clerks Office to look at the Morgan file, and made quite a scene as they could not find the file, and Jerry Wayne Morgan was not in their computer.  He said, “you mean that he has been here in Shasta Jail for 14 months, and you can’t find his file?” 

I called the Attorney and informed him that Jerry was not out yet, so he also called to find out what the hold up was.  Within the hour I got a call from neighbor that Jerry was out of prison, had no clothes except they provided a pair of old tennis shoes, some black shorts and a shirt of some kind.  Fortunately he had a friend nearby so only had to walk 4 blocks in this condition, where they provided him with a nice pair of levis, a black T-shirt. 

So we took Jerry to Wal-Mart for some new shoes and socks, went to Salvation Army and found a nice jacket.  Took him to Burger King for a hamburger, and he was starting to feel much better and enjoying his freedom. 

Then it was off to find the Redding Parole Office, as he was required to check in today by the Judge.  So for the time being he will have to jump through their hoops, take a Anger Management Course, and since the local cops will be after him for just about anything they could find to put him back in jail, he knows he will have to be very careful.  Here again Jerry was in limbo as he had no CDC # anymore, and they will have to give him a new number before he can get money for motel, which will be next Monday the 28th. 

She said that if he had no place to go, he would have to go the Good News Mission to stay, and he would have to get permission to stay anywhere else.  As we live a long ways out in the country and don’t have a place for Jerry, we dropped him off at the Good News Mission.  Jerry has a few dollars, but if anyone would like to wire him some spending money to get him by until next Monday he would very much appreciate this.  He will get one meal a day at the Mission, but will have to spend the day on the streets so he would appreciate this very much. 

So finally the First Three Striker is free. 

Website:   Morgan_Index

E-mail:   three_strikes_legal@yahoo.com

Morgan Chronology