Three years, two months and 9 days after Barry Morphew walked out of a Colorado courtroom a free man who was now not accused of murdering his spouse, he returned to court docket in handcuffs Tuesday — as soon as once more going through a homicide cost.
Morphew, 57, made his first look within the new homicide case Tuesday in an Alamosa courtroom. A grand jury indicted him on a single rely of first-degree homicide within the dying of his spouse, 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared from the household’s Chaffee County dwelling in 2020 and was discovered useless in a shallow grave close to Moffat in September 2023.
Morphew was charged in 2021 along with her dying — earlier than her physique had been found — however the case was dropped in 2022 after in depth misconduct by prosecutors that resulted in eleventh Judicial District Lawyer Linda Stanley being disbarred.
Morphew on Tuesday appeared in court docket handcuffed and in a striped white-and-orange jail uniform. His legal professional, David Beller, mentioned beforehand that Morphew maintains his innocence.
Prosecutors on Tuesday mentioned they’d supplied virtually all discovery supplies to the protection — save for one transcript that needs to be accessible within the subsequent two weeks. Chief Decide Amanda Hopkins set Sept. 2 as Morphew’s subsequent court docket date.
Within the first case in opposition to Morphew, prosecutors argued he killed his spouse on Could 9, 2020, after discovering her almost two-year extramarital affair, then disposed of her physique and staged a motorbike crash earlier than leaving for work in Broomfield early the following day.
Morphew maintains he left his spouse sleeping in mattress.
The 2 had a troubled marriage, and Suzanne was contemplating a divorce, court docket testimony within the first case confirmed. She advised a good friend she didn’t really feel protected alone along with her husband.
Suzanne’s physique was discovered with traces of prescription animal tranquilizers in her bones. Morphew had entry to the chemical substances used — a formulation referred to as BAM — and admitted to utilizing the tranquilizer combine to sedate deer, the prior case confirmed.
Investigators within the first case believed Morphew disposed of his spouse’s physique someplace within the mountains across the household’s dwelling. Her physique was really found 45 miles to the south of the household’s dwelling in Maysville.
Prosecutors allege within the new case that Suzanne’s physique was moved — that her physique initially decomposed in a unique location earlier than it was taken to the shallow grave close to Moffat. Prosecutors pointed to an absence of proof of decomposition within the shallow grave to help that concept.
Signal as much as get crime information despatched straight to your inbox every day.
Initially Printed: