Morales beat Terri Winchell in the head with a hammer so brutally and repeatedly that her face was no longer recognizable, Miles said. He then raped and stabbed her.
"He was laughing and joking with loved ones over the telephone."
Too bad his victim couldn't.
Terri Winchell, of Lodi, was bludgeoned, raped and stabbed one January night in 1981, her unrecognizable body dumped in a vineyard in Acampo.
mercurynews.com
U.S. high court denied killer's bid for stay (Michael Morales)
AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/20/06 | David Kravets - ap
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the execution of convicted killer Michael Morales.
Justice Anthony Kennedy reviewed the case, then sent it to the full court, which denied Morales' final appeal at 6:29 p.m. EST, according to court spokesman Ed Turner.
"The court entered orders denying the request for stays of execution," he said.
The Supreme court was the only legal option left for Morales, 46, who is scheduled to die from lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. at San Quentin State Prison for killing teenager Terri Winchell, of Lodi. He would become the 14th prisoner to be executed since California voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978, and the state's third execution in just over two months.
Spokesman Vernell Crittendon said San Quentin guards "locked down" the prison at 2 p.m., meaning its 5,000 inmates could only leave their cells for medical treatment. Morales, he added, "is in relatively good spirits."
"We're continuing to gear up for our shortly after-midnight execution," Crittendon said of the prison, about 15 miles north of San Francisco. "He was laughing and joking with loved ones over the telephone." |
