Robert Carter pled guilty today to killing his 13-year-old daughter Angel Morse. His trial for first-degree murder was set to begin next week.
At a hearing in July 2011 Carter pleaded innocent. His attorney, Steven Kiersh, had filed notice that he would be using an insanity defense at trial.
Carter told mental health experts evaluating him in February that “there was something evil in the house” the day Morse was killed.
According to that report, Carter said of his daughter’s death:
Something was happening. I don’t know what it was. I was outside my body looking at my body do things. I seen this before. I was upstairs on the second floor and Angel was on the first floor looking at TV. I got the gun out of my closet and came downstairs. She looked up and I grabbed her and pulled her down in the basement. There was something evil in the house. God had showed me all this evil before. Something pulled me into the basement - it was like I was just watching and I seen myself look back and me taunting myself - like I’m just looking, watching, looking at me-looking back at me… I killed her… After that I called my cousin and told him it was an accident - told him what happened. He told me to call an ambulance. I told him she was already dead. She wasn’t moving.
Documents filed earlier this month by prosecutors allege that Carter may have sexually abused Morse and had a history of drug abuse.
In addition to the first-degree murder plea, Carter pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
He faces a potential 60 years in prison on the murder charge and 30 years in prison on each of the counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office is below and Homicide Watch D.C. will update this story with documents related to the plea and more information later tonight has updated this post with related documents below.
Man Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder While Armed In Killing of 13-Year-Old Daughter-Defendant Also Pleads Guilty to Wounding Two Others-
WASHINGTON - Robert Carter, 41, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to first-degree murder while armed and other charges stemming from the killing of his 13-year-old daughter and the wounding of two others, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Carter also pled guilty to two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. He entered the guilty pleas in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Honorable Thomas J. Motley scheduled sentencing for Jan. 11, 2013. Carter faces a potential sentence of up to 60 years in prison on the murder charge, with a mandatory minimum of 30 years. He also faces up to 30 years in prison on each of the counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
According to the government’s evidence, Carter and his then-girlfriend were estranged and he was no longer living with her and the family at the time of the murder. On Oct. 29, 2010, he was at their home in the 500 block of Madison Street NW, alone there for several hours. That afternoon, he went to a store and purchased a Halloween mask and a pair of work gloves. When he returned, he took his daughter, Angel Morse, to the basement. He shot the teenager once in the head. The Halloween mask was later found on the floor, next to the girl, and the gloves were found elsewhere in the house, with her blood on them.
Later that afternoon, several family members and acquaintances began returning to the home. Carter held them against their will, including two boys, 6 and 10, and a 16-year-old girl, who he forced to sit on a couch. At one point, Carter told the 16-year-old that Angel was in the basement and that he had killed her. When his then-girlfriend returned home, Carter went to the front door, opened it, and pointed a gun at her. The 10-year-old boy jumped up from a couch and lunged at Carter, striking his arm as he began to fire the gun. Carter fired the gun several times, hitting his then-girlfriend once in the abdomen and the 10-year-old once in the leg.
After shooting the gun several more times, Carter stole a friend’s car and fled. He abandoned the vehicle in order to carjack a MetroAccess sedan, taking control of that car with an 84-year-old passenger inside. That passenger was eventually released unharmed. Carter led local police officers on a chase into Prince George’s County, where he crashed the MetroAccess car into a building in Capitol Heights. He has been in custody since his arrest after the crash, and was scheduled to go to trial on murder and other charges next month.
In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Machen praised the work of the detectives, officers and crime scene technicians who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. He also commended the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegals Phaylyn Hunt, Sandra Lane, and Alesha Matthews Yette, Victim Advocate Marcy Rinker, Witness Security Specialist Debra Cannon, Information Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David J. Gorman and Erin O. Lyons.
