Father Tosses His 2-Year-Old Daughter Into Creek

2-Year-Old Toddler Dies After Father Tosses Her Into Creek While Still In Her Car Seat. According to Yahoo News: Arthur Morgan III of Eatontown is charged with killing his daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover, in what prosecutors claim was a premeditated, jealous rage because the girl’s mother would not get back together with him. 

Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Jordan Williams told the jury that Morgan was driven by extreme jealousy and anger toward the girl’s mother, Imani Benton. She had refused to let him see Tierra the previous weekend because he was homeless and living in his car, Williams told the jury.

Despite her initial reluctance, Benton eventually agreed to let Morgan take Tierra to see “Happy Feet 2,” a movie about a dancing penguin. As he drove away with the girl strapped in the pink car seat that Benton had provided, he yelled at Benton, angry over the missed visit and suspicious she was seeing someone else, the prosecutor said.

Instead of taking Tierra to the movies, he drove around for four hours, calling her mother 57 times on a cellphone before making his way to Shark River Park in Wall Township, about 20 miles north of Benton’s Lakehurst home.

Authorities say he attached a car jack to the back of her car seat and tossed her into the chilly waters of a creek inside the park. Then he went to a liquor store, bought alcohol for rum and cokes that he downed with a friend and caught a train to begin his escape to San Diego, where he was tracked down and arrested days later by a fugitive task force.

The child’s body was found partially submerged in a creek at a Jersey shore park on Nov. 22, 2011, one tiny black and purple sneaker sticking out of the water.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Ryan Moriarty told the jurors their task is to decide “what form of homicide applies to this defendant.”

“We’re not asking you to presume Arthur Morgan innocent of responsibility,” he said. “It is our contention that he did not act knowingly and purposefully on that day but, rather, recklessly. Can your ability to think clearly be affected by lack of sleep, losing your job, staying in your car? By homelessness, by the end of a major relationship in your life?”

When asked why he attached a tire jack to the car seat, Morgan replied, “To keep her where she was,” Williams told the jury.

“Like an anchor?” the detective asked.

“Yeah,” Morgan replied, according to police. “Like a ball and chain.

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