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Jacob Matt Morgan Released From Prison

Jacob Matt Morgan was convicted of setting a fire in his home that would kill his baby brother in South Carolina. When he was convicted in 2016 Jacob Matt Morgan was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Today Jacob Morgan was released from prison after serving a little more than seven years. Even though Jacob Morgan pleaded guilty to the crime he has never admitted that he was responsible for his brother’s death. Many people have mixed feelings when it comes to the teen killer as some believe that the fire was an accident and others believing the opposite. Jacob Matt Morgan who is on the autistic spectrum was denied parole earlier this year. After seven years in prison it will be interesting to see how he responds to his new freedom

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Jacob Matt Morgan was 17 years old when he was convicted and sent to prison for a 2015 York County, S.C., fire that killed his baby brother. The scene of Morgan weeping in court captured worldwide attention. Morgan, now 24, was released Thursday from a South Carolina prison after serving about half of the 15-year sentence. Chrysti Shain, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Corrections, confirmed to The Herald that Morgan had been released around 10 a.m. from the MacDougall prison in Berkeley County, S.C.

Controversy remains. Over the past seven years, Morgan’s case has continued to capture internet interest on TikTok, Facebook and other social media as people debate whether he is guilty, if a person of his age and state of mind should have been jailed, and the 2015 death of the 14-month-old child. Morgan pleaded guilty in 2016 but has never admitted guilt in the fire near Rock Hill where Joshua Hill died.

In the type of plea Jacob Matt Morgan accepted in 2016, called an Alford plea, he was not required to admit guilt, but he accepted the punishment a guilty plea would carry. Morgan still has another 15-year prison sentence hanging over his head if he does not successfully complete five years of probation, according to officials and court documents. He faces five years probation from his 2016 conviction where the 15-year sentence for arson was suspended, according to Anita Dantzler, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services.

There were concerns bout Morgan’s state of mind and past actions discussed in court during his trial.

Prosecutors said in court that officials had several files on Jacob Matt Morgan dating back a decade before the fire. The files included referrals for outpatient psychiatric treatment, which resulted in diagnoses of bipolar disorder, oppositional defiance disorder, and anti-social personality disorder. Prosecutors also said in court they had police records from multiple calls to law enforcement after Morgan allegedly threatened and, in some cases attacked, family members.

For years, Morgan’s supporters have said he should not have been imprisoned and had no malice toward his brother. Family members claimed at the time and after Morgan pleaded guilty that he did not intend to harm his baby brother.

His family did interviews, including a 2016 national show with Dr. Drew on Headline News. Some even started a change.org petition that claimed community support for Morgan.

Morgan’s lawyer for the criminal charges, York County Public Defender B.J Barrowclough, told The Herald he is pleased Jacob Matt Morgan is finally being released

“I was happy to hear that Jacob Morgan’s release from prison is imminent,” Barrowclough said. “He was a soft-hearted, kind young man when I knew him seven years ago and he has endured a terrible tragedy. He loved his brother and always maintained his innocence. “It is important to note that even the State in reducing the murder charge to involuntary manslaughter did not take the position that he killed his brother on purpose. Whatever one believes about the case, he has done his time and I look forward to him becoming a productive member of our community. I wish him well.”

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials stated in court that Jacob Matt Morgan lied to cover up the crime and knew his brother would die in the fire.

Jacob Matt Morgan was babysitting at the time. Police and prosecutors said Morgan set fires in the family mobile home, and did not call 911 for help. Prosecutors also said Morgan had set a fire at the home two weeks earlier. Morgan admitted during a police interview that he dropped a tea candle in a blanket in the master bedroom the morning of the fatal fire, and set fire to a string on one of the sofa pillows in the living room, prosecutors have said in court.

He was barefoot and couldn’t stomp the fire out once it started getting out of control, officials said. Morgan never went to the bedroom where his brother was after setting the fire. He went outside and observed the blaze before going to a neighbor’s home to call for help, prosecutors said in court. Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett, York County’s top prosecutor, told The Herald this year there is no question the fire was intentionally set.

Brackett said Jacob Matt Morgan should serve his sentences as prescribed by law and judicial order. “The legal aspect of this terrible crime may have concluded but the consequences will continue to be felt by those involved for the rest of their lives,” Brackett said Thursday.

Jacob Matt Morgan initially was charged with murder and first-degree arson and faced the possibility of life in prison.

Under the 2016 deal, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, third-degree arson, and unlawful conduct toward a child. He was sentenced to 10 years for the unlawful conduct, and five years for the involuntary manslaughter, court records show. A 15-year sentence for the arson was suspended upon service of five years probation after release from prison, documents state. Barrowclough said in court in 2016 that he agreed with the decision for Morgan to plead guilty using the Alford plea.

Jacob Matt Morgan was denied parole in hearings in 2021 and May of this year. At the May 2022, Morgan said he would change places with his brother who died. “Not a day goes by that I don’t regret my brother’s death,” Morgan told the parole board. “I would gladly change places with him.” When parole officials asked Morgan why he became involved in the deadly incident, Morgan replied that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but did not elaborate.

Morgan served about half his active sentence. He also received credit for a year in jail without bail while waiting for trial. Morgan told parole officials he has received a General Equivalency Diploma. He earned at least six educational credits from SCDC, SCDC documents show. Morgan now has to report to probation officials to fulfill his probation sentence, officials said. The 15 years arson sentence by Judge Dan Hall in 2016 stays active until he completes probation. Under South Carolina law, failure to comply with probation conditions means law enforcement officials could ask a judge to reinstate the 15-year sentence from the arson conviction. Morgan will be assigned a York County probation agent, Dantzler of the South Carolina probation department said. Persons on probation are not allowed to leave South Carolina without approval and cannot possess firearms, according to a standard list of probation conditions provided by Dantzler to The Herald. He will have to have periodic meetings with his probation officer.

https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/crime/article269412592.html

Jacob Matt Morgan

Jacob Matt Morgan was seventeen years old when he set a fatal fire that would kill his fourteen month old brother. Jacob Matt Morgan would be sentenced to fifteen years in prison

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Jacob Matt Morgan Released From Prison

Jacob Matt Morgan – Family defends teen accused of killing 14-month-old half-brother near Lesslie

Jacob Matt Morgan is incapable of setting a fire or planning to kill anybody, a family member said Wednesday, two days after Morgan, 17, was charged with arson and murder in the death of his 14-month-old half-brother, Josh.

Morgan loved Josh “with everything he had,” said Myke Hill, Josh’s father and the fiance of Morgan’s mother.

“We don’t think he did this,” Hill said. “He didn’t have the mental ability to plan this.”

Jacob Matt Morgan has learning disabilities and has been treated for “mental health” most of his life, Hill said. Morgan was diagnosed with dyslexia, ADHD and several other disorders, he said.

Before his arrest Monday night, Morgan was taking night classes at Rock Hill High School and had a job working on the event staff at Winthrop University. At home, he was a great older brother who loved giving Josh piggyback rides around the house and making him laugh, Hill said.

Warrants allege Morgan set fire to the mobile home on Friday morning on Catawba Church Road in the Lesslie area “with malice aforethought,” intending to kill his half-brother. Investigators based their arrests, in part, on Morgan’s own statements.

Hill and other members of Morgan’s family have concerns about how those statements were collected from Morgan.

At 3 p.m. on Monday, Hill, Morgan and his mother, Julie Morgan, reported to the sheriff’s office to give their statements about what happened on Friday. While Hill and Julie Morgan were done in about an hour, they waited for nearly five hours for Matt Morgan to be finished.

“The officers, their stories kept changing,” Hill said.

Hill and Julie Morgan were told that Matt Morgan’s story kept changing and that perhaps the fire had been started by a pillow leaning against a heater. Just before 8 p.m., officers said Morgan was under arrest for “intentional and voluntary murder” of Joshua.

Jacob Matt Morgan, who turned 17 in February but has the “mental ability of a 12-year-old,” according to Hill, was not allowed to see or speak to Hill or his mother and was not accompanied by a lawyer throughout the “interrogation,” Hill said.

“He cries if you shout at him,” Hill said of Morgan. “I can only imagine how he was feeling with three officers asking him all kinds of questions.”

Officers told Hill and Julie Morgan that Matt Morgan wrote out a long statement, detailing how he planned to set the house on fire to kill Josh, but Hill said Morgan can barely write a paragraph. His disabilities make spelling, reading and writing very difficult. Hill said officers told them they could see the statement if Morgan or his attorney showed it to them.

On Tuesday, 16th Circuit Chief Public Defender Harry Dest said his office will be representing Morgan.

Hill said family members haven’t spoken to an attorney yet nor have they been allowed to see Jacob Matt Morgan since he was taken to give his statement at 3 p.m. Monday.

If Morgan had intentionally set the fire, his behavior on Friday didn’t make any sense, Hill said.

When Hill arrived at the home, Morgan was with a neighbor, barefoot, covered in soot with his hair singed from the heat. He said he woke up to a house filled with smoke and tried to get to the back bedroom, where Josh was sleeping, but couldn’t.

He ran outside to alert the neighbors, then tried to get back in the house to help Josh, but the fire engulfed the home in a matter of minutes, according to neighbors.

“You don’t do things like that when you set a fire,” Hill said.

Jacob Matt Morgan is currently in custody at the York County Detention Center. A $50,000 bond was set on his arson charge, but no bond on the murder charge. Only a circuit court judge can set bond on a murder charge, and Morgan only has been before a magistrate judge.

Law enforcement officials and first responders have said this entire ordeal, including the baby’s death and Morgan’s alleged role in it, has been very trying.

Sheriff Bruce Bryant said some people at the scene, including Morgan, were allegedly screaming at emergency responders on Friday after those responders could not save the child.

Local authorities investigated the fire along with the State Law Enforcement Division, the state Fire Marshal’s Office, the York County Fire Marshal’s Office and the York County coroner.

Officials have yet to give information on the cause of the fire. The baby’s official cause of death has not been released, pending additional testing.

https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/crime/article13635782.html

Jacob Matt Morgan – York County murder suspect: malicious killer or tortured teen?

Sobs pulsed through the 17-year-old body of Jacob Matt Morgan on Tuesday as police and prosecutors described him as a devious, fire-loving killer. The teen clasped his hands together and prayed for a judge to set him free, then almost passed out when he was ordered back to jail to await trial on murder and arson charges.

Fourteen-month-old Joshua Hill was the victim of his brother’s fascination with fire, investigators said in court, a fascination that led to the March fire at the family’s home and left Joshua gasping for breath.

A toddler dead from smoke, authorities say, because Morgan started a fire for the pure thrill of it.

Prosecutors say Morgan never called 911, even though he had a cellphone in his pocket the whole time, and then lied about the fire and trying to help his brother.

Morgan wept as his lawyer told a judge that police had botched the investigation by failing to test electrical heaters, and then subjected the teen – who has learning disabilities and can barely read and write – to almost four hours of interrogation, after which Morgan confessed to setting the fire

But that confession, said Morgan’s lawyer, is false and was coerced. Worse, public defender B.J. Barrowclough said, it was not recorded – despite police having the technology to record from their patrol cars, using body cameras, cellphones, almost anything, anywhere.

Yet police chose not to videotape the confession of a teenaged kid accused of murder by fire in the death of his own brother? It seems certainly preposterous, if almost inconceivable.

Who is Jacob Matt Morgan? Is he a stone-cold killer at 17, a classic violent, malicious brother who set two fires that day in the mobile home after his parents left him to watch Joshua – after having set a fire two weeks before that did not kill anyone? Is he a scheming killer?

Or is Jacob Morgan the teen who who fell to the courtroom floor and wailed, “No, I didn’t do it!” after a judge ruled that he will face murder charges and potentially life in prison. Is he the kid who cried through the court hearing because he has no clue how he ended up in shackles and handcuffs and leg irons, surrounded by guards with guns?

Judging by Tuesday’s hearing, a jury likely will have to decide. Neither side appears ready to budge on their account of the events that led to Joshua’s death. Defense lawyers are itching to go to trial, and prosecutors are confident enough to give them one.

Morgan’s mother and stepfather, Julie and Myke Hill, say he is not capable of murder. Myke Hall, who is Joshua’s father, said if he thought “for one second” that Jacob killed Joshua on purpose, he would not defend him.

The family and their lawyer say police had to find someone to blame for the fire, and the hapless teen who has autism and other problems finally succumbed to the good-cop, bad-cop routine by the state agent and deputies.

But William Keller, the State Law Enforcement Division fire investigator who handled the case, and veteran prosecutor Willy Thompson say Morgan is no innocent. He loved the flames, the power and the thrill and the carnage, they say, so much that it ended with his brother in a tiny body bag.

Morgan lied to try to cover up the crime, Keller said, then came clean when caught in the lie. The interrogation was how police get information, he said, after a teen who kills tries to weasel out of responsibility for his crime.

Thompson’s quiet words shook the courtroom walls: “Jacob Morgan knew that child was going to die.”

Morgan used “meanness” and had “a warped fascination with fire,” Thompson said, and he watched the flames spread from one of the two fires he set.

If a jury believes that Jacob Morgan is the teen described by Thompson and Keller, he will spend 30 years – maybe the rest of his life – in prison.

If a jury sees him as the confused, learning-disabled teen depicted by his family and his lawyer, he will go home in months or years after a trial.

https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andrew-dys/article20774481.html

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Jacob Matt Morgan Teen Killer Sets Fire Kills Brother

Jacob Matt Morgan who is mostly referred to as Matt Morgan was seventeen years old when he set his home on fire in South Carolina killing his fourteen month old brother. According to court documents Matt Morgan would set at least two fires inside of the trailer home and then leave the residence. Authorities would charge him with murder after he wilfully leave his fourteen month old brother in the burning residence. His parents told authorities that Matt Morgan suffers from a number of mental health issues including being on the autism spectrum. Regardless this teen killer would be sentenced to fifteen years in prison

Jacob Matt Morgan Released From Prison

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A York County teen accused in the death of his 14-month-old half-brother pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and unlawful conduct of a child in court Tuesday.

Jacob Matthew Morgan, 17, will spend 15 years in the Department of Corrections

Morgan, known to friends as Matt, was arrested last year after a fire at his Rock Hill mobile home killed his baby half-brother, Joshua Hill, in March.

Morgan pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter instead of murder, and an unlawful conduct towards a child charge, rather than homicide by child abuse.

The teenager also entered an Alford plea, maintaining his innocence, for third-degree arson rather than first-degree arson.

Last year, prosecutors said Morgan gave several conflicting statements before eventually admitting to starting the fire. Investigators testified fire patterns showed two fires were set and said Morgan’s stories didn’t add up.

“It my estimation both fires were set at or near potential heat sources – both of them near heaters – to disguise the fire as being accidental,” said SLED investigator William Keller.

In court Tuesday, an emotional Morgan told the judge that he loved his brother and wished he could have saved him.

“To kill him would be killing a piece of myself,” Morgan said.

Prosecutors told the judge the fire had two points of origin the bedroom where Hill was asleep and the living room. Morgan was accused of lighting tea candles before the trailer home went up in flames.

Deputy solicitor Willy Thompson said the teen had a fascination with fire, and that evidence pointed to the flames being intentionally set.

“Whether he certainly intended to kill his brother or not, it may be up for some debate,” Thompson said, “But he obviously set the fire that ultimately killed his brother.”

Prosecutors said Morgan had a cell phone, but never used it to call for help.

Despite the evidence against the older brother, loved ones continue to stand behind him.

“I will never get over losing my little boy,” said Myke Hill, father of Joshua and step-father to Morgan. “I will never get over my other son being accused of the loss of our little boy.”

A first-degree arson charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in jail. After consulting with his public defender, Morgan opted to enter the Alford plea, admitting the state had enough evidence to convict him.

“We have always believed in his innocence, because we know our son. We know the evidence against him looks horrible,” said Morgan’s mother Julie in court.

Prosecutors said they’re pleased with the deal, and the amount of time Morgan will serve behind bars.

Deputy solicitor Thompson said it was challenging because the victim’s family and suspect’s family were one and the same, and did not want prosecution.

“The friends and neighbors of the family, they were very adamant in us not prosecuting him at all. But that was not an option, because this obviously was a crime,” Thompson said.

Morgan’s family feels like they’re losing another son.

“We’re as set as we can be… the pain will never go away, but hopefully it will lessen in time,” Myke Hill said.

Morgan will be on five years of probation after his release, but could be sent back to jail for 15 years if he violates any of the terms.

https://www.wyff4.com/article/teen-gets-15-years-in-half-brother-s-death/7019947

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Jacob Matt Morgan is currently incarcerated at the MacDougall Facility in South Carolina

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Jacob Matt Morgan is scheduled to be released in 2022

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The half-brother of a 14-month-old boy killed last week in a Lesslie-area mobile home fire has been charged with murder and arson after an investigation uncovered that the 17-year-old intentionally set fire to the home while the child was sleeping, authorities said.

The arrest comes just days after the fire that killed Joshua Hill on Friday morning in a mobile home park off Catawba Church Road near Lesslie.

The York County Sheriff’s Office arrested Jacob Matt Morgan, 17, on Monday, police records show.

Morgan will be tried as an adult in criminal court, said Willy Thompson, 16th Circuit deputy solicitor. Jacob Matt Morgan turned 17 years old on Feb. 17, making him an adult under state law.

He is accused of setting a fire that officials say fully engulfed a home in the Apple Valley Mobile Home Park around 8:30 a.m. Friday. The home was destroyed and fire personnel have said they could not get inside in time to save the child.

In South Carolina, a murder conviction carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison and up to life without parole. However, Morgan’s young age saves him a potential death penalty case in York County because prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty for people under the age of 18, under state law.

Jacob Matt Morgan had an initial appearance before a magistrate judge Tuesday afternoon in a courtroom adjacent to the York County jail in the basement of the Moss Justice Center in York. He was found to be indigent and the court appointed him a public defender.

Morgan has not previously been arrested in South Carolina, according to state records.

He is being held without bond, awaiting an opportunity to go before a circuit court judge. Magistrates cannot set bonds for defendants in murder cases.

The York County Public Defender’s Office will conduct its own investigation into the fire and circumstances around Joshua Hill’s death, said 16th Circuit Chief Public Defender Harry Dest.

Public defenders have not yet studied any evidence in the case, said B.J. Barrowclough, deputy public defender. The “loss of life, particularly the loss of life of a child, is a huge tragedy,” Barrowclough said Tuesday.

The case has taken its toll on local fire and police officials “who tried so desperately to save Joshua’s life,” said York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant on Tuesday. “It’s tragic that such a young life was lost in this fire. Our prayers go out to the family of Joshua Hill.”

The intentional killing of a helpless toddler is “a truly terrible” act and one of the worst he’s seen in his 43 years in law enforcement, Bryant said.

“People, what they will do, never ceases to amaze me,” he said. “This family has been dealt a terrible blow. They were dealing with the death of the baby, and funeral arrangements, and now they have to deal with the fact that it is his brother who we have charged with committing this crime.”

Bryant added that he is proud of the volunteer firefighters and one of his deputies who was one of the first people on the scene. The deputy tried to get into the burning home to rescue the boy, but she could not breach the flames and heat that engulfed the trailer with the child inside.

Some people at the scene, including the half-brother now charged with murder and arson, were allegedly screaming at emergency responders on Friday after those responders could not save the child.

“She did everything she could do – everything – to try and save that baby and it has been very hard on her,” Bryant said. “She has lived through hell thinking about what she was not able to do. And now, this.”

Lesslie Fire Chief Tommy White said Tuesday that the news that the fire was set intentionally is “horrible.”

“My guys risked their lives that day and now we are finding out that it was done on purpose,” White said, adding that firefighters could have died trying to save the child.

Morgan is accused of setting the fire “with malice aforethought” to kill his half-brother while the child slept inside, arrest warrants state. Investigators based the arrests, in part, on Morgan’s own statements, according to the warrants

Local authorities investigated the fire along with the State Law Enforcement Division, the state Fire Marshal’s Office, the York County Fire Marshal’s Office and the York County coroner.

The day of the fire, a neighbor, Jessica Godbold, told The Herald that she heard screams and saw smoke. Godbold lives three doors down from the home where Joshua Hill died. She said on Friday that she saw someone going back into the house after flames broke out.

She identified that person as “Matt,” the child’s older brother. Matt’s hair, Godbold said, was singed by the fire.

Godbold said she tried to help a sheriff’s deputy – a first responder – get into the mobile home through a window. But, the glass exploded, she said, adding “it almost hit me, it was horrible.”

A man who identified himself on Friday as the child’s grandfather asked for the community to pray for his family. He added, “My grandson was full of life and laughter.”

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article13222835.html

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Matt Morgan, 17, cried through much of his court appearance Tuesday when he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for setting a fire that killed his brother, 14-month old Joshua Hill in March 2015.

Morgan set a fire in the living room and to a blanket in the bedroom where Hill slept in their home on Catawba Church Road on March 6 while his parents were away.

Morgan said in a statement to deputies that he woke up from where he was sleeping on a couch in the living room and went back to the bedroom to try and save his brother but fire kept him out of the room.

However Deputy Solicitor Willy Thompson said that wasn’t the truth and Morgan later changed his story.

“He said then, that he actually never did go back to the bedroom to help the child. He went outside and observed the fire for some period of time,” Thompson said.

Morgan watched the fire burn the house while his brother died, officials said. He had a cellphone with him but did not call 911. Eventually he went to a neighbor’s home to get help.

Morgan’s parents and his grandparents stood behind him and said he would have never done such a thing on purpose.

“We have always believed in his innocence because we know our son,” said his mother Julie Morgan.

His stepfather Myke Hill said he’d never get over losing his baby son or losing his stepson to prison. Still, he stood by Matt Morgan and supported him.

“I’m not going to have any sheriff, any investigator, tell me to my face that he’s a cold-blooded killer when he cries at Disney movies,” Myke Hill said.

Prosecutors said Matt Morgan was fascinated by fire and had set a small one in his own room only two weeks earlier. On Monday, he spoke out in court about the death of his brother calling him his best friend.

Morgan was allowed to plea down to involuntary manslaughter instead of murder and unlawful conduct toward a child, instead of homicide by child abuse.

He also had a third charge reduced from first-degree arson to third-degree arson. On that charge he took an Alford plea, which means he doesn’t admit to the crime but understands the court still treats it as a guilty plea.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/york-co-teen-charged-setting-deadly-fire-court-tue/103316875/

Jacob Matt Morgan Parole Denied

A South Carolina man, who has been in prison for seven years for a deadly Rock Hill fire that killed his baby brother, was denied parole Wednesday. However, even with that denial, it appears under state law that Jacob Matthew Morgan could be released from prison as early as December. At that point he would have served about half of a 15-year sentence. Morgan, now 24, was denied a chance at release Wednesday by the unanimous vote of a panel of the S.C. Parole Board after a video conference hearing, said Valerie Suber, associate deputy director of the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. The parole board had gathered in Columbia. Morgan appeared in the parole hearing from MacDougall Correctional Institute in Berkeley County. It was his second parole hearing after he was denied in May 2021. Joshua Hill, Morgan’s younger brother, was 14 months old when he died in the March 2015 mobile home fire in York County, just outside Rock Hill. Morgan was babysitting at the time. The incident captured national attention.

Read more at: https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/crime/article261565112.html#storylink=cpy