Angel Morse was 13 years old when she was shot once through her head on Oct. 29. Her body was found in the basement of her home by her brother.
Those details were among the first to be revealed in a preliminary hearing Nov. 19 in D.C. Superior Court, where Judge Rankin found probable cause in a case accusing Morse’s father, Robert Carter, of killing her.
The shooting, which occurred in a residential neighborhood of Northwest D.C. on a Friday afternoon, mobilized media outlets which joined in a concentrated effort to help police find the Metro Access vehicle in which the murder suspect was believed to have fled the scene in after carjacking it.
The court heard testimony at the hearing from Metro Police Detective Alfred Thomas Austin-Braxton, who was among the first responders to the Madison Street crime scene. Carter appeared agitated while listening to Austin-Braxton’s account of the crime scene, detailing the specific wound to Morse’s body and narrating the accounts of witnesses who described Carter threatening other family members that afternoon with a handgun and shooting his son and son’s mother. (Both survived).
Austin-Braxton said witnesses described Carter as “calm and normal” early in the afternoon, but later was pacing through the family’s home and talking about a prior domestic violence situation involving Carter’s wife. Austin-Braxton did not clarify what the situation was. Carter broke down in court when the detective spoke about domestic violence.
At the hearing, Carter entered the courtroom using a walker, leaning on it heavily and walking slowly.
A felony status conference is set for March 4, 2011. You can read the charges against Robert Carter here.
