Wesleyan Murder Suspect Held On $15M Bond
Connecticut police responding to the fatal shooting of a Wesleyan University student found a journal with an entry saying, "I think it's ok to kill Jews and go on a killing spree."
According to an arrest warrant, the journal belonging to Stephen P. Morgan also said, "Kill Johanna. She must Die."
The man who Connecticut police say stalked and killed 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich surrendered to police last night.
Morgan, 29, was arraigned Friday in Middletown Superior Court; his original bond of $10 million was raised to $15 million.
Morgan, the subject of a nationwide manhunt following Wednesday's murder, was arrested Thursday night after seeing his photo in a newspaper and asking a convenience store clerk to call police. Officers found him standing outside a Cumberland Farms store in Meriden, 10 miles from where Johanna Justin-Jinich had been gunned down by a man wearing a wig.
Store clerk Sonia Rodriguez told CBS affiliate WFSB that Morgan asked her to call the police when he stopped in the store Thursday night. She said he tried to dial, but was unable, so she had to help him.
Rodriguez said that she didn't recognize Morgan and thought he was having car trouble. When police arrived, they told her the man was wanted for Wednesday's fatal shooting of Justin-Jinich in Middletown.
Police said Morgan, a former Navy Sailor, had no identification on him when he was taken into custody, but that he gave police the correct Social Security number. A Meriden police spokesman said Morgan was turned over to authorities in Middletown who are investigating the shooting near Wesleyan.
In a statement following Morgan's arrest, Wesleyan President Michael Roth said, "We have received confirmation from the Middletown Police Department that Stephen Morgan, the suspect in the recent shooting at the Red and Black Café, has been apprehended. The Wesleyan community is grateful for the work of the law enforcement agencies involved in this process. We are all breathing a little easier with this news.
"Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Johanna and hope that this latest development brings them some measure of comfort," he said in the statement. "Wesleyan will resume normal operations, as originally planned on Friday, May 8th.
Justin-Jinich was shot several times Wednesday inside a bookstore cafe just off campus. Police said it was Morgan, wearing a wig, who shot Justin-Jinich, then ditched the gun and the disguise.
Wesleyan University was immediately locked down. But according to published reports, Morgan did not immediately flee - instead staying near the scene as if he were a witness and talking to investigators, who let him go.
His car was found abandoned. Inside, journals were found with chilling entries about raping and killing Justin-Jinich.
Middletown Police Chief Lynn Baldoni said the journals also contained evidence that Morgan may have targeted the Wesleyan campus as well as Jews.
The arrest warrant also said Morgan's father described him as a loner who kept a journal and was known to make anti-Semitic comments.
However, the suspect's brother told The Associated Press that Morgan wasn't anti-Semitic.
In a statement read to reporters outside his parents' Marblehead, Mass., home before his arrest, the Morgans said they were "shocked and sickened by the tragedy" and extended their condolences to the victim's family.
Penny Wigglesworth, who lives in the same upper-middle-class neighborhood, called them a "model family," and described Morgan as pleasant and polite.
Morgan and Justin-Jinich had known each other at least since 2007. Police records show she filed a harassment complaint against Morgan when they were enrolled in the same six-week program at New York University. In a complaint filed in July 2007, Justin-Jinich said Morgan called her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails.
One of the e-mails warned: "You're going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can't take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna."
Both were interviewed by university police, but Justin-Jinich decided not to press charges.
Justin-Jinich would have graduated next year from Wesleyan. She was a 2006 graduate of the Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school outside Philadelphia.
Justin-Jinich, of Timnath, Colo., came from a Jewish family, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.
Memories Of Virginia Tech
Students struggled to cope with the campus shooting, with those who knew Justin-Jinich describing her as a passionate writer who was well-liked.
Wesleyan student Sydney Howe said Justin-Jinich trained her to work as a server at the bookstore café where Justin-Jinich was shot.
"She was really fun, a really nice person, really welcoming to everyone that came into the cafe," Howe told WFSB said. "She was a really amazing person, so nice when I started. She taught me everything about working at the cafe."
The shooting stirred memories of the Virginia Tech shootings, in which a deranged student killed 32 people and himself. A panel that investigated the 2007 massacre said university officials erred by not acting more quickly to warn students. Police had mistakenly concluded that the first two victims were shot as a result of a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute.
Sebastian Giuliano, mayor of Middletown, a city of 48,000, immediately thought of that tragedy as he saw five police cars race by Wednesday. "Don't tell me it's another Virginia Tech situation," he said.
The shooting occurred early Wednesday afternoon as several hundred students gathered for a concert held annually to allow students to blow off steam before finals. Police and university administrators moved everyone indoors and canceled the concert.
Police gave the all-clear late Wednesday afternoon and said there was no danger, but did an about-face two hours later, warning students to take immediate shelter.
Police said evidence uncovered at the scene prompted the renewed warnings, but they offered no details. Later Wednesday, they released a surveillance photo of the gunman and said they were looking for Morgan, a former Navy man who university authorities said had no connection to Wesleyan.
"Everything we did was based on information we received from Middletown police," Wesleyan spokesman David Pesci said.
There was more confusion when the university posted a photograph purportedly of Morgan on its Web site, only to use a photo of another man. It was replaced Thursday afternoon by two images supplied by police.
The last day of classes for the year was Tuesday. Final exams are scheduled to begin on Monday.
Box lunches of roasted vegetables, tuna fish or cheese sandwiches were being delivered to students in dorms while Wesleyan's cafeteria remained closed on Thursday. In dorms, students in flip-flops, gym shorts and pajama pants shuffled downstairs to pick up their meals.
"We're supposed to do some work, but really I just keep checking my e-mail and checking on friends and letting people from home know that I'm OK," said freshman Chrstina Yow, of China. "Anything to distract."
School officials said counseling services were being made available to students, faculty and staff.
Brenna Galvin, a sophomore from Amherst, N.H., said her family was considering bringing her home. "It's hard to know what to do," she said. "Really, we're just trying to keep in touch with people at home."
Middletown's only synagogue, Congregation Adath Israel, across the street from the bookstore, was closed Thursday and congregants were considering canceling Sabbath services Friday night and Saturday.
"It was a no-brainer to close the building until we knew more information," synagogue president Eliot Meadow said.
A memorial vigil is scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. in the Huss Courtyard behind the Usdan Center.
Correction: We erroneously posted a photo of Stephen L. Morgan, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University, rather than the suspect, Stephen P. Morgan, Thursday. We apologize for our error.