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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. I can't get in, man. Oh my god, get in fucking car, you son of a bitch!
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I'm not gonna fucking lay in with a fucking windpipe in my shoe. This is episode 310 of Sword and Scale. You know that already, but uh,
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I'm not going to waste your time with that. Before you go ahead and hit skip to the meat of the show, let me tell you, if you're not
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going to watch episode 17 of Sword and Scale Television, you are truly missing one hell
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of a nightmare. Let's go. I mean, I'm not even kidding. I couldn't sleep for three days after finalizing that episode.
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And if you're going to only watch one episode of Sword Scale Television, that one should be it.
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Not that you have to stop at one. I mean, if you sign up for the super supporter tier,
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Here you can get access to all 17 episodes and ongoing episodes monthly. We're working on getting you some more content on top of that.
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It's a labor of love, people. This is what the dipshits on Reddit call begging, which is actually just marketing.
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Yeah, we created a product. We want you to consume it. Duh. Anyway, go check it out if you like True Crime and if you want to support Sword and Scan.
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Love takes sacrifice. That's what I've heard. And I've also found it to be true in my own life.
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There's a lot you give up when you're truly in love. Sometimes you give up your time or your money or your freedom.
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To go to a ditty party, for example. A lot of things. But your humanity shouldn't be one of them.
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Putnam County, Florida is a stretch of land between Gainesville and St. Augustine,
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where dirt roads wind through the pine forests, and the air is as humid as, well, it's like walking through the bottom of a pool.
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It's a place of small towns and long stretches of country in between. The poverty rate is higher than the rest of the state because of the remoteness.
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Inside Putnam County is Melrose, a small, quiet community that barely makes a blip on the map.
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This is the kind of place where people still leave their doors unlocked, believe it or not,
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and where Friday night football and Sunday morning church have become just a thing on the calendar that doesn't change.
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This is attorney Bradley Waldrop, a native of the area. I am a former prosecutor. I've worked in Putnam County and St. John's County from about 2006 to 2010.
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I'm currently in private practice in St. Augustine, Florida. I do criminal defense and do family law as well.
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But I'm a lifelong resident of St. Augustine, Florida. So very familiar with the area and really cut my teeth as a prosecutor in Putnam County, which is where this occurred.
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Down a dead end road in Melrose sat a modest home built in 1985. It was now more than two decades old, a single story house with a yard that stretched into the woods.
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It wasn't much, but it was home to 15-year-old Morgan Leppert, her older brother, and her 48-year-old mother, Jerry.
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Melrose is a beautiful community. Like I said, it's very laid-back, rural. It's one of those towns that you pass through on the way to Gainesville.
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Just a lot of beautiful scenery there. It's kind of like one of those one red light towns where you stop at the red light and there's everything.
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A general store, a restaurant, a gas station. But it's a very laid-back town, very tight-knit community.
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Jerry Leppert was the kind of mother who had lived enough to see trouble. If you don't know what that means, you will.
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Let's give it time. She tried to steer Morgan in the right direction, tried to set rules, and tried to keep her daughter close.
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She even picked her battles with Morgan, letting her see boys at an early age. In order to keep an eye on things,
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she had an open-door policy, preferring that Morgan socialize where her mom could see her.
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An interesting parenting style, which some people employ, to their detriment. But just like typical teens arguments took place over space choices and the kind of people Morgan was bringing into her life Her mother saw the warning signs
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She knew what was coming. It was obvious that Jerry cared about and loved her daughter, but Morgan didn't see
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that. She saw a cage instead, built to stifle her cravings for independence. I've said it a couple times on this program, but I'll say it one more time.
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Kids are dumb. They really, really are. So if you're an old person and you see a bunch of kids at a protest,
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maybe think twice before joining in. Because he might be supporting really bad shit.
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Anyway, Morgan was desperate for her independence, as most teenagers are, and one day she found it in the form of a man named Toby Laurie.
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She fell in love with him, and love meant freedom. He moved in with us. He lived in for three months.
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Okay. Three months, like a month, something like that. Did he just sleep on the couch at the house?
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He slept in my room. Did your mama know that? So Toby moved in right away. You know, parenting isn't easy,
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and Toby needed a place to stay. Jerry was picking her battles with Morgan and was already prepared for the day
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when Morgan became interested in boys. Well, that day came early and her mom had already brought in reinforcements
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as in contraception. Let me ask you a personal question. Are y'all having sex? Yep.
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Yeah. Thank all my years. Well, I appreciate it. It's all with your will? He's not forced himself on anything? No?
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Never. Never. Well, okay. How many times do you think you may have had sex since y'all dated from the very beginning until now?
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Just guess. I know it's embarrassing, but guess. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. 10? No.
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20? No. Uh, am I going too high or too low? Low. Uh, 60? Probably. Probably. Are y'all using protection?
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Mm-hmm. I was on birth control. You were? Who got that for you? I don't know. I got on birth control on my 14th birthday in January.
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I think it was 14th birthday. That's too early, girl. Oh, my mom. She done. My sister got on birth control at 14, too.
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Yeah. With the things. If they're using protection? Yeah. You're not present? Mm-mm.
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Okay. So your mom knows it, you don't have sex? Yeah. Is she fine with it? She was, whenever he was living with it.
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I have no idea now. At first, Morgan's mom didn't ask too many questions. Teenagers push boundaries, and that's just part of raising one.
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If giving Morgan a little space kept the peace, maybe it was worth it. But Toby wasn't just some boyfriend.
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He was 22, unemployed, and guess what? He had a criminal record. Young girls love bad boys, you know?
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So naturally, he was the perfect guy to move in with a 15-year-old. That was sarcasm.
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Some of you don't understand sarcasm, So, I guess I've got to point it out. Jerry would soon find out exactly who she let into her home.
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Well, at least y'all are using protection and you're not pregnant. That's the big thing.
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You don't need no kids right now because, heck, you're still in school. How old is he?
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22. And you're, you want me to tell you how old you are? 15. Yes, ma'am. Don't you think that's kind of a big age now?
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Nope. You're fine with it? Yeah, but still. You're still in school, and he's out and got a job.
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Toby was out of school and unemployed. When he wasn't behind bars, that is. Charismatic and conventionally good-looking,
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he'd fallen through the cracks, fallen out with his parents, and started breaking the law.
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And Morgan wasn't just rebelling, she was running toward a person who made her feel like an adult,
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even if he was the worst possible choice. If you only heard of this conversation,
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you'd think this was a dad having the talk with his giggly teenage daughter, a patient, experienced voice
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trying to steer her back onto the right path. But this was not her father. This was a detective sitting across from Morgan
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in a concrete interrogation room hours after she and Toby were found in Texas a thousand miles away from home, burning through stolen gas and borrowed time.
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And all of it started when Jerry Leppert learned the truth. She had no idea that Toby had a criminal record with burglary, theft, and drugs under his belt.
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She certainly had no idea that he was an adult male, almost eight years older than her daughter.
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But once she found out, she did what any sane mother would do, and she kicked him out.
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She told him he was done. Gone. No more playing house with a 15-year-old child. For a minute, that might have seemed like the end of it, but Morgan wasn't letting go that easily.
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Just a few days later, on April 22, 2008, she was gone too. Her mother searched She filed reports She even broke into Toby trailer hoping to find some kind of sign some trace of her daughter but Morgan wasn there This is Morgan talking about the early days with Toby leading up to her disappearance
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Yes, I do. All right. Are you willing to speak to me about the incident about you deciding to run away?
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So you got a boyfriend and your mom found out he'd been in some trouble with the law and
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some things come up missing in the neighborhood and he's a new kid on the block so he got
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blamed and you said that was back in January this year? Yeah, January 11th, about the day before my birthday.
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Then he came back two months later and we got back together. Yeah, so you came back in March and y'all got back together in March, is that what you're saying?
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Yeah, March 11th, we started dating me. The reason Toby was basically homeless was because he had been living in a camper and then went to prison.
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While he was living in the camper, he proved his devotion to Morgan before moving into her bedroom.
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And he used to come down my street. He used to walk. That far? All the way from Polacka to the other side of the bridge.
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All the way to San Mateo. Are you serious? Every day. That's a good 10-mile. He used to walk every day.
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And, you know, the bridge is steep. Fast forward. Toby moves in and stays for a few months, but things come up missing.
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Morgan's mom finds out about his age and background, and she kicks him out. And in April, Morgan disappears with Toby, leaving her mom to contact the police.
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Pretty much, I just left. He didn't mind the fact that I was with him, and I said I was going to be with him no matter what.
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And I ended up leaving. Did you go to school at all the day you left? Or you just left the house?
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What day was it you left the house? The 20th century. Where'd you go when you left the house?
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It was in St. Louis. Over there at the condom in it? Yeah. How many days did you stay over there?
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No. We left that night. You did? Mm-hmm. And you started, where'd y'all go when you left? Did you go back to your house or was that when y'all started driving?
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We started driving then. Well, what car, how did you get out here? Yeah, I took that truck.
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What truck? That's over the Dakota, or not Dakota, that Toyota Tacoma or whatever.
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Oh, did he buy him a truck from working? I have no idea. He showed up in the truck. I don't know where he got it from.
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Yeah. That's what I have been, I have no idea where that thing came from. Not at all?
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Um, so when you got there, the truck was already there? And then y'all just hopped in it and took off, huh?
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Did you bring any clothes with you? on my clothes. Well, we bought clothes, like, do travel and stuff, but I don't know if they're
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going to give me my clothes back. They're all in the truck with my wallet and everything.
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Baby Toby rode in like a knight in shining armor. Literally. The truck was silver, new and gleaming,
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ready to whisk Morgan away to freedom, to adulthood, to adventure. And to Morgan, barely 15,
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and desperate for something bigger than the life she knew, it might have felt like a rescue.
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But to Toby, it was never about saving her. He was merely pulling her deeper into his world,
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where love was just another tool of manipulation. And that shiny new truck, it carried Toby and Morgan away on an adventure,
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while it left its owner behind, broken and bleeding. It was April 2008 in San Mateo, Florida.
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Jerry Leppert lived in a three-bedroom home on the end of a rural street with her son and her daughter, Morgan.
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The kid's father was no longer in the picture and her oldest daughter had moved out.
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Morgan was a good kid, but Jerry always knew she needed to keep an eye on her. Morgan was feisty, somewhat immature, and crazy about boys.
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One boy in particular, whose name was Toby. Toby had been living in a camper, so when Morgan begged her mom to let him move in with them,
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she reluctantly conceded. Sensing they were already sexually active, Jerry would rather have them fooling around under her own roof than in a camper somewhere remotely.
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I guess the sentiment sort of makes sense, but I don't know, try parenting instead.
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It works better. You can't actually say no to your children every now and then. But instead of doing this, Jerry put Morgan on birth control at age 14
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to ensure that there would be no accidental pregnancies. She didn't realize that Toby was an adult male with a criminal history,
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and his sights set on Morgan. So when she kicked him out of her home and her daughter's life,
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Morgan had already fallen for him. It was too late, way too late. They were about to take off and make a life of their own.
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At least that's what Morgan thought. They simply disappeared in a silver truck. No one knew where they were going or what they already done But what started as an escape as chance at the big road trip and a new life together would soon unravel into something far more horrible Because the truck they were driving
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didn't just belong to anyone. It belonged to a dead man. After they were picked up in El Paso,
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Texas, Morgan, was interviewed. She wasn't interested in talking about the truck, though.
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Truck? What truck? All she could think about or talk about was how great Toby was, and how he'd
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do anything for her. She talked about leaving Florida, about sleeping in the woods, showering
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at gas stations, and about what it felt like to be free. If that sounds a little immature, it's
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Because it is. It is. But you know how detectives are. They don't just ask you a question and take your first answer at face value.
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No. They ease in slowly, like a fisherman letting out a line, waiting for the right moment to reel you back in.
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And that was on the 22nd, the day y'all left. Did he tell his parents where he was going?
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No. Just that he was going to weed down a little bit. and and is that his friend's truck that he did that y'all are in i really have no idea
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you ever seen him in it before you didn't ask him who it was i really didn't care at the moment i
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was glad to get out of here i know so well he didn't say hey this is my buddy jim's truck or
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this is you know it didn't even worry that I just jumped in and took off I was just so happy as to
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get out of there yeah okay how did y'all eat did y'all just buy food yeah we had money about food
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did you know that that the whole country was looking for your sweet little self no you didn't
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know that I know I heard about it I figured like because I was walking into every Walmart we went to
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traveling the whole time. Now I would look on the missing people thing. I didn't even see myself
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on this. I said, whatever. You know. Florida's still. Yeah. You know what an umbrella it is?
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Nationwide. I just found that out. Because that's how they find me. Yeah. And what they did is because your mom was so worried
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about you because she didn't see him so long as they sent their band alert out. I haven't talked to her since the day
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I lived almost two weeks. But Jerry wasn't the only one wondering where their loved one was.
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James Stewart lived alone, but his cousin had spoken to him on the morning of April 25, 2008.
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After that, the calls went unanswered. A neighbor also noticed that James hadn't left his house in a while.
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His beloved tomato plants weren't thriving anymore, and they wondered if he was away on vacation.
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But his truck was still there. James' family wasn't alarmed for the first few days.
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It was just a missed call, maybe just bad timing. But when the days started to add up, so did the missed calls.
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By May 1st, another cousin couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. So he called the police.
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Deputies went to the house for a welfare check, and when they opened the door, the truth hit him in the face.
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a wall of decay and death. James Stewart wasn't missing. He was lying on the floor,
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rotting. He'd been dead for nearly 10 days, murdered and left to bloat, stiffen, and seep
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into the floorboards of his own home. Morgan claimed that Toby picked her up in a silver truck
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and she had no idea who the owner was. Maybe she was right that Toby would do anything to be with her.
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Maybe she was right indeed. Who do you think that truck belonged to? He didn't tell me that the truck belonged to.
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Yeah? He didn't worry about who that was? At the moment he did. You know he didn't make enough money to buy that truck, right?
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What do you mean? Like Toby. Do you think he made enough money washing cars to buy that truck, honestly?
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Honestly, no. Yeah. So how do you think he got it? Borrowed it or stole it or? I have no idea.
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If you had to guess. What's my money you're getting to? No, I'm just saying, if you had to guess, how did he come about this truck?
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Because it's not registered to him. We don't know who the guy is registered to. I have no idea.
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No? Would you tell me if he did? You proud of him? Yeah, what? I'm just making sure.
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We're trying to find out whose truck it is. It's not Toby's. I don't know. He picked me up in it, and we just went on something.
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I didn't care at the moment who, what, or what was going on around me or anything.
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Okay. She didn't care who it was or what was going on because she was in love. He already cared to be with me, most likely.
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Yeah, but you know what? He told me he was going to do whatever he had to do just to be with me.
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But I didn't know he was in the day that far. And did something stupid like he did.
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Like what? Because that truck was going. Yeah. It was. And the whole week talked about running away,
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but I didn't know that he even got furious about it. And then he actually did it.
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Kind of scared you a little bit? I didn't know he was like, I thought he was joking around and going along with what I was saying.
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We didn't force you to run away, did he? Uh-uh. No? I wouldn't. Believe me. I wouldn't run away.
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Morgan had no problem talking about running away. away. And she certainly had no problem talking about Toby, the man who would do anything to be
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with her. But detectives weren't here to talk about young love. They were here for murder,
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just like you. They just hadn't revealed that secret to Morgan just yet. The tone in the room
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shifted. The detective stepped out for a moment and came back with a picture. Do you recognize his guy? Morgan? Ever seen him before? Somewhere? Yeah. I have no idea. Never seen him before? Has Toby ever talked about an older friend of Melrose?
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i have never seen dubby hanging out with an older guy like the only guys that he hangs out with
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scott and every time every time i went to track i thought he was good yeah well i talked to him and
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he said that um he had mentioned this guy to you do you remember him mentioning to him at t at all
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not at all don't recognize him at all no he never said hey i got this guy that's a friend of mine
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and it's older or nothing like that? I've never seen him with that guy before. Morgan wasn't budging.
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Either she was telling the truth and her innocence was just that, an innocent young girl in love taken advantage of by an older boy,
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well, an older man, or there were many more layers to Morgan. Well, I'm giving you a clean slate here
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that you knew what was going on in that truck to tell me, and you won't get in any trouble.
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You sure? How is that fondant? Yeah. I just know it's cold here. I'm changing subject, but I'm cold.
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You want to put that jacket on? I don't want to look like a banana. So you pick on us because we wear this kind of jacket when we work?
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You call us bananas? I got a question. Yes, ma'am. Where is Toby? Toby is in a holding cell waiting to be processed in the jail.
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jail. Wait, can you come back for me? Yes, ma'am. Do you know what jail you're in? Putnam County.
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Why, you weren't out seeing him? Well, you'll be able to pay him a Putnam County jail.
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Then you're going to do a Putnam County jail. Is your mom going to let you? That's when I'm
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scared to hold up. I can be honest with you. If you were my daughter, I wouldn't let you go.
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No place for you. It was early in the morning and the interview was winding down as it was looking like Morgan wasn't going to give in.
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The detective gave it one last shot. Well, I'm going to be honest with you, okay?
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Because you've been honest with me the whole time, so I'm going to be honest with you.
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If the truck comes back not going on with the tow being stolen, he's going to be in a little bit of trouble, okay?
00:26:58
Okay. I knew he was your boyfriend and I wanted to tell you that, just so you know.
00:27:01
um another thing is is that if toby tells us that you knew the truck was stolen or you knew that there wasn't his then you might be in a little bit of trouble too you see what i'm
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saying well i mean you could you know it's theft you know i mean so i mean i'm just saying if he
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honestly didn't tell you that's fine and and and i completely believe you but if he did tell me now
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and we can bypass the issue of you getting in trouble or anything not that i know of i mean
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We've been traveling this whole time in that truck. Yeah. The detective tried the soft approach by giving Morgan an out, a clean slate.
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But when she stuck to her story, he switched gears. This wasn't just about a stolen truck anymore.
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He reminded her of how dangerous this all was. A teenage girl running away from home, sleeping in cars, hitchhiking across state lines,
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sleeping in the woods with rattlesnakes and only Toby to protect her. She could have been kidnapped, assaulted, or left for dead in the middle of nowhere.
00:28:06
But somehow, she was still here. So far, I mean, y'all could have easily gotten a car wrecked in it,
00:28:12
and you could have been hurt and no one would have known where you're at, you know?
00:28:14
Mm-hmm. I heard my mom thought I was dead. Really? Why did you, is that the friend you called that told us that?
00:28:23
Why did she think you were dead? I don't know, she, cause I guess my mom kept on calling him, seeing a security thing from me, and she said, or she, I guess she told him that, oh, she thought I was dead.
00:28:35
A lot of people thought you were seriously hurt cause they ain't heard from you in a while.
00:28:39
Yeah, I heard a lot of people been looking for me out there. Do you know, do you know you've been on national television?
00:28:46
I've heard. You've been on Nancy Grace? Nancy Grace. She's the, the, the talk show host on CNN.
00:28:53
I had no idea. You know what CNN is, that TV channel? You're famous, girl. By now, Morgan's face was on the news.
00:29:03
What appeared to be a missing or runaway teen was turning out to be much more of a complicated story.
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Morgan was still holding on to her version of the story, insisting that she had no idea where this truck came from and that she'd gone with Toby willingly.
00:29:20
But detectives weren't just getting one side of the story. Because just down the hall in another room of the El Paso Police Department, they had already sat across from Toby Lawry and sent him back to Putnam County Jail.
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By then, they already knew where he and Morgan had been. On April 22nd, a friend of Morgan picked her up and took her to Toby's trailer at the Economy Inn RV Park.
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How romantic. That night they showed up at Toby parents house hoping for a place to stay but his parents refused to take them in Now they were on their own Toby was a drifter a thief and a predator
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And, like always, he was looking for someone to take along for the ride. It gets lonely out there, predating by yourself.
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Is that a word? Anyway, together they broke into a concession stand, stealing candy, drinks, and whatever food they could find.
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They slept wherever they could, in the woods, behind homes, even on old mattresses they found abandoned in the yard.
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It was like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde adventure. And along the way, Toby started looking for something bigger, something like a getaway truck.
00:30:43
We're now on the 24th, okay? What I want you to do, though, is I know you paced out some houses over there in the Melrose area.
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and I want you to tell me what, if anyone entered any houses, I need you to tell me.
00:30:58
If you did not, then we'll go on. I'll get up to that. Okay, that's fine. Where do you want to start back off on?
00:31:08
Where Lane was, where did the matter? What day were we at? 24 hours was the day that happened.
00:31:14
Okay. You told me she was like, maybe? I'll get out of here, whatever being necessary.
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He immediately inculpated Morgan as the voice that drove him. But neither he nor the officer was ready for the climate shift about to hit them.
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He paused, shifted in his seat. He rubbed his arms and ran his hands through his blonde hair.
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The room went quiet. A chill settled into the space between them, and then, finally, Toby leaned in.
00:32:17
24. Yes. Okay. Even though Toby didn't know the occupant of the house, James Stewart,
00:32:24
he knew a little about the house itself. He used to live directly behind it, and a friend of his
00:32:30
lived in the house James was in now. What they did is they decided to run away together,
00:32:38
and they were basically casing different houses to look for appropriate victims.
00:32:45
Miss Leppert earlier in the day, the day of the murder, knocked on Mr. Stewart's door around 1 p.m.
00:32:53
and asked to use his phone. He gave her access to use his phone and she actually called her own
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cell phone and had an opportunity at that time to basically do some reconnaissance on his residence
00:33:07
that he did live alone. So Toby sent Morgan directly to James's front door on this reconnaissance mission.
00:33:16
We just went up and knocked on the door. I was like, go there and ask if you can use the phone.
00:33:20
Okay, call your cell phone. No one's going to answer your cell phone. Toby waited in the woods close by,
00:33:27
and he could see what was happening. After about 10 minutes, Morgan came back. This was getting real.
00:33:35
I'm kind of pushing on my fucking thoughts right now. As you can tell, I'm kind of psychotic in my mind.
00:33:42
Well, you're thinking survival, bro. I'm thinking survival. I'm trying to get to where we ain't nowhere around this fucking place at all.
00:33:52
Right. I'm trying to get the fuck out of there, you know? Sure. So she's telling me, motherfucker, he got no fingers.
00:34:00
He looks like he's kind of, yeah, kind of a little bit. Yeah. But he's still getting out.
00:34:08
Is that because of some of the stuff that's in the house? Yeah. Okay. weight equipment and shit like that.
00:34:13
Yeah. And it looked like partially of his fingers, like right here, got cut off some weird shit.
00:34:19
I don't know what it is, bro. And I was like, what the fuck? And she was like, this hand over here,
00:34:26
all the fingers were gone. And there was just a round hand right there. You know, I was like, kind of good.
00:34:33
I was like, what the fuck? Sure. That's like a freakiest shit. All right. I was like, can you be honest with me,
00:34:37
you tell me you never know this guy before. No, I've never met her, too. Okay, he just picked his place out of random that day.
00:34:43
And I told her, I was like, maybe that's fucking freaking me out. I was like, he didn't touch you or nothing, did he?
00:34:48
Because usually people like that are fucking predators. Sure. And I was like, like, maybe he didn't touch you, did he?
00:34:56
And she was like, she didn't answer me. And I was like, baby, he didn't touch you, did he?
00:35:03
And she was like, no, he didn't touch me. I'm like, okay. They'd open the door to the home of a disabled man.
00:35:15
James Stewart lived a quiet life tucked away in his modest house in Melrose, Florida.
00:35:21
He wasn't a predator. Where did Toby get the idea that disabled people are predators?
00:35:26
I have no idea. Here's Toby, someone who just entered adulthood with all his faculties and appendages,
00:35:34
ready to do the unthinkable to a disabled man. and he's calling the victim a predator.
00:35:42
James wasn't wealthy. He wasn't famous, but he was independent. He took care of himself,
00:35:49
tended to his tomato plants in his backyard and kept his truck in pristine condition.
00:35:55
What he didn have what he had never had were fingers He was born with a congenital defect that left him with hands that he could grasp with but never fully close The simplest tasks like
00:36:11
buttoning a shirt, tying a knot, holding a pen, had been lifelong challenges, but
00:36:17
he'd learned to manage. He had adapted. It's amazing how humans can adapt to almost anything.
00:36:26
He'd found ways to live in a world that wasn't built for him. But there are some things that no
00:36:32
amount of adaptation could prepare him for. And all Toby was concerned about was whether James had
00:36:40
touched his precious girlfriend with his stubby hands. In Toby's words, fingerless stumps.
00:36:50
But there was some information Toby hadn't revealed yet that would lead this cold-hearted thief and murderer
00:36:56
feel just a little more protective of his girlfriend Morgan than usual. What do you want to do?
00:37:04
I'm like, I don't know, baby. I was like, I'm like a million dollars for that running through my head right now, baby.
00:37:11
The whole thing is a Bible. Yeah, and she's like, maybe you know I'm pregnant. You know, when you gotta get out of here,
00:37:16
this is your ticket right here. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, well, he has a truck. I'm like, fuck, man.
00:37:23
I don't know what the fuck. All right, I woke up a little bit. I'm thinking, I'm like, what the hell to do?
00:37:29
What am I gonna do? All they could think about was how to get out of the state and start building a life together.
00:37:34
because after all, their baby was technically going to be the product of statutory rape, according to the law.
00:37:42
She was like, honestly? I'm like, yeah, honestly. She's like, I say we go up in this fucking house while he's in there.
00:37:52
Fucking beat the shit out of him. Do what we gotta do. I'm like, baby, I'm fucking dumb about this shit.
00:37:59
I'm not thinking I got the heart for that. and our life will forget. It was easy to think that Toby was the one lying
00:38:09
and trying to pin this on Morgan, but for the fact that he was the one laying out the painstaking details
00:38:15
while Morgan had sat in a chair across from another detective, lying and giggling.
00:38:23
On the other hand, Morgan claimed she went willingly. Maybe she believed that at the time.
00:38:29
Maybe she still does. But willingly or not, she was a 15-year-old child who followed Toby all the way to murder.
00:38:40
Next, Toby goes to the door of the house by himself. He knocks. James comes to the door and is met with Toby, asking him if he'd seen a young blonde girl earlier.
00:38:53
James tells him yes. She just left and went down the street. Toby answers, really?
00:38:59
At this point, Toby says that James gets snarky with him and asks if he's stupid because he just told him she left and went down the street.
00:39:10
That response sat with Toby about as well as the thought that a man with fingerless hands would dare touch his woman.
00:39:19
According to Toby, he gave him an evil look and walked away. like this ever okay wait five minutes and she was like baby give me a fucking kill you guys i'm like
00:39:36
i'm the man all right man i can't i i can't do this i ain't got the heart to do that
00:39:42
i can't i can't do it and she was like baby i'm pregnant there's nothing we can do
00:39:51
else we got the money we ain't got no money we ain't got no transportation i'm pregnant
00:39:57
There's nothing we can do, okay? I asked her, I was like, is this what you really fucking want?
00:40:05
She's like, yeah. Once we do this, we can fucking take the truck and get fucked upstate.
00:40:11
She's like, baby, we gotta do something. I can't lose you again. I'm like, well, you know, we ain't got to lose you for a long time.
00:40:22
And she was like, we ain't gonna get caught. Here was a seasoned criminal looking to a 15-year-old girl on what to do
00:40:30
when she had never committed a crime before meeting him. This wasn't two kids who believed it was them against the world.
00:40:38
It was an adult and a naive girl. She's right next to me. She don't like to leave my side. I get you.
00:40:45
So now the couple was heading back into the house. The doors were all unlocked, remember?
00:40:51
It's some little shit town in Florida. Nobody locks their doors. This time they had with them two copper pieces of pipe tucked into their backpacks.
00:41:01
And they wouldn't be knocking on the door. They'd be sneaking in through the side door.
00:41:06
Um, so, I'm standing there, I'm like, Hey, fuck, I'm gonna fuck you this shit. I don't want to do it. I'm freaking out.
00:41:13
You're still in here? Yeah. And I'm like, you know, I don't want to fuck you this shit.
00:41:17
I don't want to do this shit. She's in all of this shit. She's like, hey, we got there. We're already inside the house.
00:41:23
If he comes out that room, he has to do something. Or he doesn't call the fucking law on you.
00:41:28
I'm like, how the fuck is he going to call the law? He ain't got no fucking fingers.
00:41:32
That's worth repeating in case you didn't understand. Morgan says, you have to do something now.
00:41:38
We're in the house and they'll call the law on us. To which Toby replies, how's he going to call the fucking law?
00:41:47
He ain't got no fingers. I looked in the room. There's a peek on the corner. I peed around the corner.
00:41:54
Yeah I see you sitting at the computer desk I was like I started thinking I like baby he just sitting there I just turned towards us
00:42:05
She's like, baby, go in there. Pull the knife on him. He ain't gonna say shit to you.
00:42:10
I was like, jeez, I don't know. I'm scared. I'm gonna get caught in one prison for fucking life.
00:42:17
No parole. She was like, baby, you've got to do this. You've got to do this. You've got to do this.
00:42:24
So you guys are kind of arguing back and not really arguing back and forth. No, we're discussing it.
00:42:29
Like on your breath? I'm like, man, I took off my sweater, my shirt, and I put it in the chair.
00:42:38
And I didn't have no shirt on. All right. Why? I didn't want to get blown or nothing on it like that.
00:42:44
So I was like, fuck it. Yeah. It seemed like the adult in the pair was the only one thinking of consequences.
00:42:52
Toby didn't want to get blood on his shirt and he reminded Morgan of what could happen.
00:43:22
than you know this. And I swore in my mind I wouldn't confess this shit to nobody,
00:43:28
but she already did apparently. So. Little did Toby know that Morgan, either because she had
00:43:37
too much faith in her partnership or because she was immature and naive, or maybe
00:43:43
because she was smarter than he was, had not said one word and would not confess
00:43:49
until the next day. And she loved me. She knows what's best for me. So I was like, fuck it.
00:43:56
I jump in the fucking room. I'm like, listen here, motherfucker. He turns around and he got his shocked ass look on his face.
00:44:02
I'm like, where the fucking keys are you? I wasn't planning on doing shit to him.
00:44:06
I was just like, get the keys, whatever money he had and leave him. You know, what do you think I did?
00:44:12
Motherfucker's like, motherfucker, I'll take some gas and call the wall. I was like, you meant me and you don't want to fucking do that, dude.
00:44:19
I'm unstable. At that point, James was still sitting down. His back had been turned to Toby and Morgan.
00:44:26
He hadn't noticed them yet. But when he heard them, he swiveled around and put his arms up.
00:44:32
He was wearing a t-shirt, underwear, and socks in the comfort of his own living room,
00:44:37
where he'd been playing a game on the computer. When he started to stand up, Toby grabbed a nearby knife and started threatening him.
00:44:46
All he wanted was keys to the truck and cash, but for some reason, James kept repeating that he couldn't even afford the truck.
00:44:55
And this made Toby angrier, because that didn't make any sense to him. Being an idiot, of course.
00:45:02
So I was like, give me the fucking keys right fucking down. Give me the fucking keys and we'll fucking cut you wide open.
00:45:08
Okay. James was getting closer. But then Toby looked at him and remembered. I mean, this motherfucker can't grab any shit.
00:45:40
He's got a phone on one hand. I'm like, what the fuck? God damn, he's a big guy.
00:45:46
I'm like, give me the fucking keys. I'm like, look here. Either you give me the fucking keys
00:45:52
and we're out of your hair and whatever money you fucking got, or I'm just gonna take care of business right here.
00:46:00
According to Toby, James fought back with everything he had, but Toby had already decided
00:46:06
how this was going to end. Toby answered with a punch in the face, breaking James' glasses
00:46:13
and puncturing his eye with a piece of the lens. And I'm like, God damn it, too much fucking made me do.
00:46:22
And Morton's like, Hey, fucking get on top of it, fucking kill him right now. Did he fall to the ground?
00:46:27
Yeah. The two got into a physical brawl on the floor, and James defended himself fairly well,
00:46:34
despite his limitations. Maybe a little too well. Baby, fucking hitting with something.
00:47:08
Where is she at? She's staying right beside me. She's still over and at that end door.
00:47:13
I'm like, fucking hitting with something. Like, what the fuck are you under the standard?
00:47:17
Do you hear how excited this idiot is? He can't wait to tell his story. Even the cops.
00:47:25
Like, it's a promo for some stupid made-for-TV movie. Dumb people be dumbin'. I'll bet my Cybertruck this retard watches a lot of wrestling.
00:47:33
and she hit him with the pipe in the face. He's like, one time he's like, he's like, he's like,
00:47:42
he's laying five and four. Yeah, he's laying five and four now. I'm fucking, the shoes I had on,
00:47:48
I had some Reebok soldiers on with the fucking latched straps to come across the top of him.
00:47:52
Okay. And I got my foot in his fucking neck like this. I'm trying to fucking choke him.
00:47:56
I'm trying to fucking break his windpipe. Are you serious? Yeah, I kept stomping on a fucking windpipe.
00:48:02
God damn. Is he still moving? Yeah. He's still trying to fight me off of it. Okay.
00:48:07
I'm like, man, quit fucking moving, man. I'm freaking out, man, because I'm like, man, this motherfucker's close to dying already, man.
00:48:14
He's bleeding to death out of his fucking arm. You know, fucking. Is he still struggling?
00:48:18
Yeah, I sliced him on his arm, but I know that fucking vein right there is a straight-lid key to your heart.
00:48:23
Yeah. He's going to bleed like a motherfucker. Okay. Bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm fucking kicking his fucking face into the wall.
00:48:31
You kicking the neck? Yeah, I'm kicking the neck. I'm trying to fucking collapse his windpipe.
00:48:35
All right. I can't do it. He's still fucking moving. How many times did you kick him?
00:48:39
About 25 times. What? That's right. I'm fucking... You guys are even... No, I fucking kicked him a lot.
00:48:46
Just kept stopping him. Yeah, I just kept trying to stop him because I didn't know what the fuck to do.
00:48:51
I'm like... I'm freaking out. This time I'm going to drop the fucking knife. Okay.
00:48:55
I'm like, I ain't got shit in my hand now. Okay. Imagine bragging about getting the better of a man with no fingers.
00:49:07
I mean, seriously. She was standing right beside him because they never left each other's sides, according to Morgan.
00:49:28
It was like they were stamping out a bug or a deadly snake or like World of T-shirts stomping
00:49:54
on a fish. And there was Toby in his orange jumpsuit, reliving it all with disturbing enthusiasm.
00:50:02
I don't know about you, but this is kind of ennauseating to me, hearing him so excited about
00:50:08
telling the story. He was standing now, animated, his hands waving through the air as he reenacted
00:50:16
every brutal strike. For a few minutes, it wasn't a confession, it was a performance.
00:50:22
Toby looked less like a man haunted by what he'd done, and more like one who still felt the thrill of it.
00:50:29
This is the worst case that I've encountered as far as brutality and the circumstances surrounding the passing and the killing of Mr. Stewart.
00:50:43
I can't think of anything in my 18 years of practicing law that's been this brutal.
00:50:51
Toby lifted his boot and brought it down hard on James Stewart's neck again and again.
00:50:58
Die, son of a bitch. But James didn't die. He was fighting as hard as he could. This man who'd endured a life of trying to adapt was desperately trying to survive.
00:51:18
fighting as hard as he could, despite his physical disabilities. For all the blood, all the blows, and all the ways his body had been broken,
00:51:27
he was still alive. And there was still time for Toby and Morgan to leave with James' soul still intact.
00:51:35
But that wasn't part of the plan. What came next wasn't just brutal, it was absolutely merciless.
00:51:47
The End vanished from Melrose, Florida in a stolen silver Toyota Tacoma. Great truck, by the way.
00:52:23
It's one of our sponsors. Anyway, days earlier, Morgan had been reported missing and investigators
00:52:30
soon discovered she wasn't just a runaway. She and Toby had been involved in a violent crime,
00:52:37
and that's quite an understatement. Their trail led back to the home of 66-year-old James Stewart,
00:52:45
a disabled man who was found murdered in his own home. His pristine truck was missing, and the suspects were nowhere to be found.
00:52:56
As authorities pieced together this timeline, they realized this wasn't just a case of teenage rebellion.
00:53:02
It was something a lot darker. Sitting in an interrogation room over a thousand miles away,
00:53:09
Toby Laurie was recounting every last detail each thought and each action Even detectives were mortified at the number of times Toby stomped on James neck while he was on the floor
00:53:25
But what he had to say next was far worse than anyone expected. down on it but he kept trying to fucking force the knife up he was still alive he was right
00:53:45
out in the chest like right here okay how many times you sat in there because i know how many
00:53:50
i don't even know i've tried to stab him once i know that with my knife i tried to stand
00:53:56
and when i came to when i looked at his face his whole face was purple yeah bloody yeah
00:54:05
fucking there was chunks of brain coming out of his fucking nose cartilage coming out of his
00:54:09
fucking nose not moving he's still moving a little bit it's like twitching or whatever he's like
00:54:15
he's trying to fucking breathe sure i done fucking broke his nose and shit and probably
00:54:22
yeah he's trying to breathe i still see his fucking heart beating in his fucking chest he's
00:54:27
done pissed on himself he pissed blood out of dick um there's blood everywhere below the wall and
00:54:34
I'm like, God damn, God damn, God damn, I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out.
00:54:39
What's more of you? And she's like, She's like, make me move, make me move, move.
00:54:44
I'm like, why the fuck you want me to move? I fucking moved because I was out of breath.
00:54:49
I couldn't fucking breathe in the office. It was just, it was burning right here.
00:54:53
You on you? Yeah, it was just fucking burning. There was nothing I could do, but it was just fucking burning.
00:54:59
And I walked in the other section of the house, Toby had stepped away from the scene for just a minute to use his inhaler, which is fucking hilarious.
00:55:27
A killer with asthma. All that action had left him breathless, and he had plenty of life left, unlike James, his victim,
00:55:36
who was struggling with everything he had to stay in the fight. But he was losing.
00:55:42
And then, through the wheeze and the chaos, Toby saw something that he wasn't prepared for.
00:55:49
I'm like, baby, I've got to get in the shower. I can't have this fucking blow on me.
00:55:52
I'm about to fucking cry now. Get in the shower. You took a shower there? Yeah. which one right there in the right it was laying i took a shower right there
00:56:06
and as i'm taking a shower i see morgan i'm not stretching on her i'm not stretching on her
00:56:14
don't get me wrong i understand just just finish it out though because it's you're over it's over
00:56:19
with you're not absent there i've seen morgan stabbing in chest okay how many times did you
00:56:25
There were three stab wounds because Toby had just finished stabbing him once. And then Morgan took over.
00:56:39
When Toby got out of the shower, he realized that James was still alive. I didn't do it.
00:56:56
I counted around anything. Oh, he was one? Yeah. Okay. I put it around his head and I twisted his eyes .
00:57:04
You must be by hand with a, in the back of the threshold level by your hand. Were you handling that?
00:57:10
Okay. And I just, I lost it again and I started beating the face down with my fist.
00:57:17
Okay. I burped his nose, his nose was like- You beat his, or you hold that part?
00:57:23
Yeah, he's still trying to breathe. I can see like a bubble come up from where his mouth is.
00:57:27
I can still see the heart, the heartbeat. Right. And I'm like, lost. Ah, bam, bam, bam, bam.
00:57:40
I felt his nose break three times. Is the plastic bag on his head? Yeah, please.
00:57:44
I felt his nose break three times. When his nose broke three times, that's when he clicked on me.
00:57:49
That was it. That's when he passed. because I think I pushed the phone up into his brain or something.
00:57:55
Yeah, at least it would have made me suffer now. Yeah, I'm fucking, I'm pretty mad
00:57:58
with this fucking misery and... Listen, just relax, man. Just relax. Relax. But all I do is like,
00:58:12
you can justify, you can justify to yourself there was reasons why you did this and I think you did it for me.
00:58:18
You justified that you were in hard times, but are you trying to help out your wife
00:58:21
or your wife can be, I should say. And your baby in that belt And you know what Toby unfortunately you start to provide to them bro You understand that right You still have to be there for him You still have to be a father You still have to be a husband figure to her
00:58:36
Can I use a bathroom? Toby had just described James' final moments in chilling detail,
00:58:42
saying he had to put him out of his misery, like a lame horse or an injured animal.
00:58:48
But somewhere in his core, he was finally feeling remorse, and it was visible to detectives.
00:58:55
It seems like sympathizing with a killer, this technique that detectives use to keep a suspect talking,
00:59:02
to stop them from shutting down. But in this moment, after the sheer horror of what Toby had just described,
00:59:09
it felt grotesque. Because what had just happened wasn't about love. It wasn't about love at all.
00:59:18
and no words, no justification could change that. At the murder scene just before they left,
00:59:26
this is what Morgan said. After I did that, she told me she was like, baby, we just took human life.
00:59:34
I'm like, no shit. I'm the one who fucking did it. I mean, you helped out, but you just don't know how that shit made me feel.
00:59:45
was he really remorseful or did he just fear the consequences of being in prison for life
01:00:04
and being without the love of his life prison of course is exactly where he landed in 2010
01:00:12
Then, both Toby Laurie and Morgan Leppert stood trial for the murder of James Stewart.
01:00:19
Prosecutors argued that this wasn't a spontaneous act of violence. It was calculated, cold, and relentless.
01:00:29
Toby, the adult of the couple, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole.
01:00:36
During the trial, Morgan's defense team painted her as a naive, manipulated teenager.
01:00:41
under the control of an older, violent man. Courts love it when women get off on the same crime
01:00:49
that a man committed. Not exactly sure why. Maybe some of that old chivalry from the Dark Ages.
01:00:57
They argued that Toby Laurie was the mastermind, that he orchestrated the attack,
01:01:03
that Morgan was just following orders, too young, too impressionable to understand the weight of her actions.
01:01:10
He said, oh, he's going to call the cops. And Toby said, no, the hell you wait. And boom,
01:01:16
punched him right in the face. And I just, I looked away. I was about to cry. I told Toby,
01:01:22
I was about to tell Toby, I don't want to do this. But Toby just already hit him. And he's like,
01:01:28
come on, baby, come on, hit him, hit him. But the prosecution had a different take on it.
01:01:34
I mean, as far as like who was the ringleader, I mean, the only people who know what happened
01:01:40
in that house are Morgan, Toby, and Mr. Stewart. So what the jury found was that she was guilty
01:01:49
of first-degree murder because she participated in the murder. Exactly what she did, really
01:01:56
the only people alive who know are Toby and Morgan. But the jury did find that she intended
01:02:03
to commit premeditated murder and in fact killed Mr. Stewart. Morgan, just 15 at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery.
01:02:15
Under Florida law, she received a mandatory life sentence without parole, a punishment usually reserved only for adults.
01:02:24
But, and here we go, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional,
01:02:34
despite what monsters they could be. That decision gave Morgan a second chance, at least in the courtroom.
01:02:43
In 2020, she was resentenced to 40 years in prison. A reduced sentence, but still long enough to make sure she won't walk free until she's well into her 50s.
01:02:56
I'm sure 40 years in prison will rehabilitate her. Oh, Morgan claimed that she was pregnant but miscarried in jail.
01:03:04
So, probably no kids in her future. James Stewart lived alone. He was disabled. He'd already proved to the world that he was stronger than his disabilities.
01:03:16
In fact, he was so strong that Toby and Morgan could have walked away more than once while he was still alive, but they decided not to.
01:03:25
James' family will miss him dearly. This is a statement from his nephew. My uncle was the type of man that anyone around him who was ready to take life head should have had the opportunity to meet or speak with Those who were lucky enough to spend time with my uncle soon learned that there was nothing that he could not do The man was truly amazing
01:03:52
Things that I hear people young and old say that they can't do are things he called speed bumps or
01:03:59
obstacles. Not having hands did not slow him down one bit. The thing is, he did things most people
01:04:08
don't dream of accomplishing in their lifetime. He was a master carpenter, a professor. He skied,
01:04:16
played tennis, bowled. He was a commercial fisherman. The list goes on and on. Most of
01:04:23
The cars he owned were stick shifts with no power steering. My uncle taught me that the word can't is for cowards, losers, and people that see hard times or difficult tasks and give up.
01:04:37
I was lucky enough to be able to spend time with this amazing man and have some of that greatness rub off on me.
01:04:44
But my son and future children will only be able to hear stories of this great man that I have called Uncle.
01:04:55
For centuries, philosophers have pondered what love is. They've done it for as long as there have been philosophers.
01:05:05
But what do they know? People with nothing but the luxury to sit around thinking all day and ponder things.
01:05:12
Those are usually the people that are most disconnected from reality. Hey, I'm describing myself.
01:05:20
Alright, so let's give it a shot. Love is... Fuck, I don't know. But I'm sure Morgan doesn't know either.
01:05:31
Why did you just walk out, Morgan? Because I never want to be, Toby. So you killed somebody?
01:05:37
I love him so much. Morgan had an obsessive, all-consuming type of quote-unquote love for Toby,
01:05:46
the kind that rewired her dumb little brain and twisted whatever immature concept stood in for logic.
01:05:55
This obsession drowned out all reason and convinced her that nothing else mattered.
01:06:02
It's the kind of thing you see in movies. Bad ones. Morgan was 15, reckless, desperate for freedom, and convinced that Toby Laurie was the answer.
01:06:14
He made her feel untouchable, like the world belonged just to the two of them. A lot of people don't realize that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, not a romance.
01:06:26
I, on the other hand, treat it like a comedy, because if God gave you a brain, then you have the responsibility to use it every now and then.
01:06:36
And for Toby, Morgan was also an obsession. She was something to possess, to run away with, to kill for,
01:06:44
because he was lonely and wanted a hole to put his dick in. That's it. That's what she was for Toby.
01:06:55
Real love doesn't ask for everything you have. I don't know why anyone has to actually say that out loud.
01:07:02
It doesn't demand a sacrifice in blood. It doesn't turn a teenage girl into a murderer
01:07:10
or leave an innocent disabled man gasping for his final breath on the floor of his own living room.
01:07:17
That, I do know. Even dumb old me. James Stewart didn't know Morgan and Toby. He wasn't part of their stupid fantasy or their twisted rebellion.
01:07:29
He gained nothing from being in the proximity of dumb. But, unfortunately for him, he ended up being part of their sacrifice and quote-unquote love anyway.
01:07:59
Well, I'm not going to beg you to watch SNS TV again. You're an adult. You go figure out what to do.
01:08:11
At least I hope so. Otherwise, go find your parents. What the fuck are they doing?
01:08:15
You shouldn't be listening to this. So it's Gale.com. Stay safe. Thank you.