Alphonso Washington Florida homeless man charged w/ murder of Charles Morgan Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. man at Dania Beach hotel. Suspect had prior criminal conviction for murder.
A homeless man with a prior criminal record who had been staying at a South Florida hotel as part of an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus has been charged with fatally stabbing and stomping on the throat of a married father from Massachusetts earlier this month.
Charles Morgan, 59, of Martha’s Vineyard, stopped at the Rodeway Inn & Suites in Dania Beach while on his way to visit relatives on Aug. 1 when he crossed path with convicted killer Alphonso Washington, 59.
At some point the two men had a disagreement with Washington allegedly following the traveling Massachusetts man and killing him according to the Vineyard Gazette.
‘I am beyond belief,’ Morgan’s wife, Jackie Flynn-Morgan, told the media outlet. ‘We are just overwhelmed.’
When cops found Morgan lying on the bathroom floor in room 3104 the next day, his larynx was crushed so badly it had likely been caused by the killer ‘stomping on a person’s throat,’ according to a police report cited by the Sun-Sentinel.
Parolee convicted of killing young woman in 1985
He also suffered neck wounds from a ‘sharp-edged instrument,’ and was pronounced dead a the scene, police said.
Washington had been staying at the hotel for two months as part of a program by the city of Fort Lauderdale to help homeless people escape the coronavirus.
When the city’s program ran out of funds last month, the activist group New Florida Majority raised money to keep more than 30 homeless people, among them Washington, in the hotel, reported CBS Miami.
The ex-con — who was convicted of killing a young woman in Homestead, Fla., in 1985, — had been using the inn as a semi-permanent residence, and having his mail delivered there.
Video footage from the morning of Aug. 2 allegedly showed Washington arguing with Morgan, who was sitting outside his room on a chair, according to the report.
Police believe Washington later followed him into the room and murdered him.
Morgan, who went by the nickname Charlie, had been married to Flynn-Morgan for 22 years. He also had a 19-year-old daughter, Mary.
‘I will miss my husband very much’
‘I don’t have any words, except that we are just devastated and I will miss my husband so much,’ Flynn-Morgan told Martha’s Vineyard Times.
Morgan was remembered by those who knew him as a hard worker and a ‘salt-of-the-earth’ person, according to his friend Joe Keenan.
Washington who is now charged with second-degree murder & parole violation has denied killing Morgan.
He appeared in court last Thursday and was ordered held without bond.
