A Toronto woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after a text she sent to her boyfriend set off a deadly chain of events in 2o18.
At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, a judge sentenced Egypt Morgan to 10 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of manslaughter.
Morgan’s boyfriend, Shamoi Palmer, was found guilty of first-degree murder earlier in the year for fatally shooting a man driving on Weston Road in August 2018.
The man, Jermaine Titus, was an innocent bystander and not the intended target of a bullet fired from an illegal gun. During the trial, the jury heard Titus was driving to get a haircut and that the intended target was someone known as “Skeeno.”
The court had heard Morgan played a key role in the deadly events that transpired by texting Palmer, whom she knew was armed.
Morgan texted Palmer to tell him Skeeno was in a 7-Eleven in the area, the court heard.
When she testified in her own defence, Morgan said Palmer had asked her to let him know if she ever saw Skeeno. She testified she didn’t know why, nor did Palmer explain why. Morgan said Skeeno was no one to her, personally.
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“I just heard of him before and I seen him on social media, that’s it,” she previously explained to defence lawyer Douglas Usher.
Morgan said she continued to send text messages describing the clothing Skeeno was wearing and explained where he was standing but after that, boarded a bus to work.
The judge said Morgan knew her boyfriend Palmer was armed with a gun and that he was intending to use it. The judge, however, said it wasn’t clear if Morgan knew Palmer planned to kill anyone.
After the shooting, the court also heard Morgan helped her boyfriend to evade police before he was eventually arrested.
Morgan has already been found guilty of manslaughter by a jury. On Tuesday, the judge was tasked only with deciding the sentence she should face after her conviction.
Defence lawyers had argued the four years she had already spent in jail should be counted toward the decision, while the prosecution pushed for a 12-year sentence.
The prosecution told the court that, despite testifying she had ended her relationship with Palmer, Morgan had continued to send him letters after they were both incarcerated.
One letter submitted as a court exhibit was signed, “Your princess.”
In the letter, she wrote to Palmer: “I’m sad about you spending another birthday in there but I’m happy to be by your side through them all and hopefully for the rest to come.”
The letters were intercepted by prison officials.
The prosecution said those letters were evidence she was not remorseful for the part she played in the deadly shooting and would make rehabilitation a challenge.
The judge admitted Tuesday that the revelation suggested Morgan was not remorseful and gave her “pause” to think before ultimately sentencing Morgan to 10 years for manslaughter.
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