The New Jersey father who allegedly killed his two-year-old daughter was apprehended in California yesterday. After an eight-day manhunt, U.S. Marshals arrested 27-year-old Arthur Morgan III after they received a tip he was staying with friends in San Diego. Morgan is accused of killing his daughter Tierra Morgan-Glover during a court-approved visit last week, by submerging her—still strapped in a car seat—in a Wall Township stream. "With him, if he couldn’t have his family, no one could have his family,” Tierra’s mother Imani Benton told CBS.
Dozens of marshals and sheriff’s officers surrounded the two-story home in San Diego after getting the tip. Though Morgan appeared as though he was going to try to make a run for it, he offered no resistance, officials said. "They gave him the standard task force direction: ‘Let me see your hands,’" said Omar Castillo, a deputy U.S. marshal who took part in the operation. "He complied right away, and he was placed in handcuffs right away." Authorities plan to extradite Morgan back to New Jersey to prosecute him on murder charges. The FBI also charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Benton calls her life right now a living hell, but is happy her ex was brought to justice: "I’m relieved that they caught him. I can sleep. I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder and thinking that he’s still out there.” Benton says she was physically abused by Morgan for years before she was able to leave him. “New Jersey should bring the death penalty back and no man should live the rest of his life knowing that he did this,” she said.
