Morrison found not guilty of complicity to murder
ZANESVILLE – A jury has found a 35-year-old man not guilty of complicity to commit murder in a fatal shooting last year at a home on Spangler Drive.
Chad M. Morrison was acquitted of the first-degree felony after a jury of seven men and five women deliberated for two hours and 15 minutes. But the jury did find him guilty of two counts of obstructing justice, both third-degree felonies, for providing transport to Anthony Wilson, who had just shot a man, and for then lying to the Zanesville Police Department about the shooting the next day.
Witnesses had testified they also had lied to police on Morrison's orders.
Judge Kelly Cottrill also found Morrison guilty of a third-degree felonious weapons charge. The defense had waived the right to a jury trial on that fourth charge.
Morrison, 35, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court. He faces a maximum nine years in prison.
"We respectfully accept the verdict of the jury, and we're satisfied that he was found guilty on the other three counts," said Assistant Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch.
The charges came in connection with a Jan. 22, 2014 fatal shooting at 468 Spangler Drive. Wilson has already pleaded guilty to the murder of 35-year-old Isaac Thomas, who was left bleeding outside the house before he later died at the hospital of the shot to the chest.
The trial lasted three days. After the state rested Thursday morning, the defense called two witnesses, including Morrison and his girlfriend, Amanda Soller.
The state argued in court that Morrison gave the order to Anthony Wilson to shoot Thomas after the pair had argued over a gun Thomas allegedly stole from Morrison. Witness testimony revealed Thomas had taken the .357 from the house on Spangler Drive, which was allegedly used for drug trafficking.
But when Morrison took the stand, he said Wilson had acted on his own, adding that although it was bad for business for someone to steal a gun, it was even worse to have someone shot and killed at a drug house in retaliation.
"The worst thing I could ever do to Isaac is tell him he couldn't come back to this spot," Morrison testified. "That would hurt his feelings more than anything else."
He admitted to being scared of Wilson, who he had just witnessed pull out a gun and shoot Thomas in the chest, a man who Wilson had testified the day before had been his friend. And when Morrison fled to his car, and Wilson climbed in the back seat, he said it was out of self-preservation that he drove Wilson from the scene.
"If he was willing to do that to him," Morrison said, referring to Thomas, "what would he do to me?"
When Wilson testified Wednesday, he had called himself Morrison's "enforcer," or protector, and said he shot Thomas after Morrison gave him a visual cue.
Wilson, 27, of Columbus, is scheduled for sentencing Monday for 10 counts related to that shooting, as well as the shooting at Hoppy's. The state reduced the charges and recommended a lesser sentence in exchange for his testimony. He faces 32 years to life in prison.
The weapon reported to have been involved in the slaying, a .40-caliber handgun, was never found. Wilson had testified he gave it to Morrison.
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