Man Pleads to Manslaughter in His Mother’s Fatal Fall : Courts: The Van Nuys resident, accused of pushing Marjorie Morris, 61, out a window, will be jailed for at least six years.
A Van Nuys man charged with killing his mother by pushing her out the window of their second-story apartment agreed in court Monday to a plea bargain under which he will be imprisoned for at least six years.
Despite the plea by William Morris, 37, his attorney continued to insist that the Aug. 10, 1991, death of 61-year-old Marjorie Morris might have been an accident. “We will never know whether it was an accident or he pushed her,†said defense attorney James Blatt, adding that Morris was too intoxicated to remember the incident.
The bottom of the dining room window in their apartment on Saticoy Street was only one foot off the floor, Blatt said, “so it would have been easy for a person to trip and fall out.â€
Prosecutors say the evidence strongly indicates Morris pushed his mother.
He had argued bitterly with her for several hours before she was seen plunging from the window, prosecutors say.
She died of head injuries after falling 12 feet to a dirt strip, according to Van Nuys Superior Court records.
Morris, who had been charged with murder, pleaded no contest--equivalent to a guilty plea for criminal court purposes--to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter, for which the maximum penalty is 11 years in prison. If convicted of murder, Morris could have been sentenced to life in prison.
Judge Leon Kaplan, after accepting the plea bargain worked out by Blatt and prosecutors, ordered Morris to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before sentencing Oct. 22.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald N. Eastman said that under the agreement, Morris will be sentenced to between six and 11 years in prison.
Eastman, who heads the Van Nuys office, said that prosecutors initially filed a murder charge against Morris “because we weren’t sure what the charge should be, but now I personally feel it is a classic heat-of-passion voluntary manslaughter case.â€
Blatt said that Morris, an unemployed truck driver addicted to cocaine and alcohol, quarreled frequently with his mother about money for drugs during the six years they lived together.
The attorney said he is hoping that psychiatric reports will show that the fatal fight with his mother was a “one-time thing related to his addictions and that Mr. Morris is not a danger to society.â€
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