Jereleigh Morton , 47,was killed inhis bed Sunday.
Posted on 08/09/2007 5:06:24 AM PDT by grjr21
One of two women married to Montgomery County millionaire Jereleigh Morton, who was shot dead in his bed Sunday, is scheduled to be charged today in the case, her defense attorney confirmed last night.
Myra Morton, 47, who had told police that her husband was killed by an intruder, will surrender to authorities at 9 a.m., two sources close to the case have told The Inquirer. They would speak only on condition of anonymity pending the arrest.
"There's no doubt she's going to be arrested," one of the sources said yesterday. "It's a fait accompli."
Morton's attorney, Center City lawyer Brian J. McMonagle, said the report of her surrender was correct.
"She just lost her husband and is about to lose her liberty," McMonagle said. "She is experiencing extreme grief and heartache at this very delicate time in her life. . . . She's pretty much devastated."
Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman declined to comment.
Jereleigh Morton, 47, was killed hours before he was scheduled to board a flight for Morocco, the home of his second wife, whom he married under Islamic law in March, according to court documents.
A search warrant affidavit filed Monday said that investigators found no evidence of forced entry at the Mortons' Whitpain Township home, and that two shells fitting Jereleigh Morton's own Glock .40-caliber handgun were in the bedroom. The family moved to the house near Ambler in 2005 after receiving $8 million in a medical malpractice settlement that resulted from the death of their teenage daughter.
Myra Morton told detectives she consented to her husband's second marriage because doing so was required under their religion. A written note expressed unhappiness and anger about the relationship.
Only a small minority of Muslims practice polygamy.
"I go give him the permission because he argues with me when I protest this marriage," read the handwritten note, found by detectives at the Morton home. "I run all over her country trying to get the papers together. He treats me different now while we're there. His whole world is her. He brings me home sick and returned to her to finish marriage papers."
The warrant also says investigators were seeking DNA samples from Myra Morton to compare to evidence found on her husband's gun and at the scene.
McMonagle said he did not know what evidence, if any, linked Myra Morton to the killing. "I'm really looking forward to examining what it was that led them to the conclusion that it was necessary to arrest her, as opposed to anyone else in the world."
The Mortons were married at least 20 years, and McMonagle described Myra Morton as a "caring, devoted, loving wife and mother." He said Jereleigh Morton had been "extremely well thought of."
One of the sources said authorities had found Jereleigh Morton's other wife near Casablanca, Morocco's largest city. Her name was not available.
Investigators made contact with the woman, the source said, but she has not been asked to travel to the United States at this time. "Everything we've been told [about the marriage] has been confirmed," the source said.
Prosecutors had asked the U.S. Department of State to help find Morton's second wife, though it was unclear how she was found. Messages left at the U.S. consulate in Casablanca and the Moroccan consulate in New York were not returned yesterday.
Myra Morton and her adult daughter - who lived in the house on West Mount Pleasant Avenue with her husband and their child - were the beneficiaries of Jereleigh Morton's will, according to authorities. Jereleigh and Myra Morton were worth $6 million, she told detectives, according to the affidavit.
The Mortons received $8 million of the $14 million settlement in 2005 in connection with the death of their daughter Aatifa. The lawsuit said she died after suffering from Crohn's disease that had been misdiagnosed as ulcerative colitis.
Nicknamed T.T., Aatifa became ill at age 13 in 1999. She suffered from fever, pain, and a sepsis infection and died on May 31, 2001.
Crohn's is a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. Symptoms and their severity vary but can include bleeding, weight loss and skin problems. It is believed to be caused by a faulty immune system.
After the settlement, the family moved from a small rowhouse on West Allegheny Avenue in North Philadelphia into the modern, $1 million house in Whitpain.
Morton, known as Jerry, went from handyman to real estate investor who rehabilitated houses and owned a karate school in Germantown and an electrical supply company, a cousin said.
He was a member of the Germantown Masjid on Germantown Avenue near Stenton Avenue in Philadelphia, according to members interviewed at the mosque yesterday.
Jereleigh Morton , 47,was killed inhis bed Sunday.
This woman decided that being property was not to her liking...
I can't believe this! She just lost her husband to murder, and they are going to arrest her?! She's just been widowed for Pete's sake.
How unimaginably cruel.
Diversity, ain’t it heart warming!
a superfecta of fun!
High Irritainment Index
Younger second wife would stand to inherit everything if he changed his will, especially if she got pregnant and had a child.
Morton should have been charged with bigamy, or do we allow Islamonuts to commit bigamy in the USA in order to be politically correct?
The joys of polygamy and Islam.
Only a small minority of Muslims practice polygamy.
Yeah, right. It will be interesting to see how the media treats this one. Wife as victim, common liberal feminist theme, or more likely, polygamy is just another facet of Islam that me must accept in the name of diversity.
So he was a parasite who belonged to an anti-American religion and was using his loot to purchase a younger woman in Morocco for his pleasure.
She should have divorced this bigamist and cleaned him out.
LOL! You are right. The MSM may just forget about this one as it has two of their favorite victims going against each other.
I highly doubt that any US probate court would consider such a will legitimate.
I just love a story with a happy ending.
Well, she did clean him out; she just did it a little differently than you suggest. We live near here and have been listening to this on the news. She apparently said that she was lying in bed when someone shot her husband. I assume that she is telling the truth—she just turned over and shot him. Can’t say I blame her.
I find it interesting that he is associated with the Germantown mosque. There was a black Muslim who received a lot of money from the Street administration to run a school there several years ago, but few students were found to have enrolled there, if any. He was a fraud and was from the same area. I wonder if they’re from the same mosque?
You can leave your money to whoever you want, right? He may well have considered changing his will were he an old man with a new wife and child to dote on. Have seen it happen before...
If you die married and leave all your money to another woman to whom you are not legally married or related by blood, the will will likely be challenged.
Especially when the money under dispute was from a court award pursuant to the death of the wife's child.
A good trusts and estates lawyer will tell you that if you intend to cut a family member or spouse out of your will, you should give them a specific bequest instead to demonstrate that you remembered them and specifically left them something.
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