‘Passion’ defense rejected by jury

A man is headed to jail for 75 years and must pay a $10,000 fine after jurors reached a verdict Tuesday afternoon in the trial of Esaia Morris. Morris had confessed to the 2016 murder of his roommate. 

His attorneys argued that when he murdered Francisco Sierra it was an act of sudden passion brought about by a sexual assault. The attorneys for the defense said that Sierra sexually assaulted Morris, who had been sexually victimized twice as a child and acted under the “immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause.” 

If the jury had decided that Morris acted under sudden passion, the range of punishments would have been from two to 20 years of incarceration and a fine of up to $10,000. However, the jury did not find in favor of sudden passion. The range of punishment for Morris increased to between five and 99 years of incarceration and a fine of up to $10,000. The jury reached its decision after just over three hours of deliberation.

Prosecutor Ben Gillis said that although Morris pleaded guilty, there is a difference between pleading guilty and accepting responsibility.

“In this case, the defendant has been talking out of both sides of his mouth,” Gillis said. 

Gillis noted that when Sierra called a suicide hotline the night before the murder, he told the responding officer that his roommate had forced a sexual encounter on him, then blamed him, and was worried that the roommate would file charges against him. Gillis argued that an encounter between the two men “didn’t end well,” and that the defendant threatened the victim. After the police officer left, Gillis argued, the defendant went into the victim’s room and engaged in another sexual encounter before putting a pillow over his head and shooting him. 

Gillis noted that the gun only had one bullet in it.

“Was that what really would have been loaded in that gun” in other circumstances, Gillis asked, “or was this an execution?”

The defense argued that a sexual assault did occur and, given the defendant’s history, it triggered him to act.

“I guarantee you this young man’s mind was not in a good place,” defense attorney Todd Dudley said, referring to the defendant.

Dudley expressed condolences to Sierra’s family and emphasized, “I am absolutely not standing here saying Francisco Sierra deserved any of this.”

However, he said, lawmakers created the “sudden passion” provision for crimes such as this.

Dudley argued that Morris was not thinking clearly and pointed out that Morris left the single bullet casing on Sierra’s bed after the shooting.

“Is this somebody with a well thought out plan?” Dudley asked jurors. “... This young man was not in his right mind.”

Dudley also asked if the case would be different if, instead of a young black man, the defendant were a young white woman who had a history of sexual abuse and acted out against a drunk man acting aggressively sexual.

“Why should this case be any different?” he asked. “... I’m asking you to level the playing field.”

Trey Thompson wrapped up closing statements for the prosecution, arguing that what occurred did not involve sudden passion, though Morris might have been angry.

“I suspect most murders happen when someone is angry,” he said. “... I’m not saying … this was planned over the course of hours, minutes, days … but it’s not sudden passion.”

Prosecutors pointed out inconsistencies in Morris’s testimony and some instances in which Morris said things that made no sense. 

“All Francisco is now is a memory to hold dear for his family and his friends,” Thompson said as he asked the jury for a sentence of at least 60 years behind bars.

After the jury reached its verdict, Sierra’s family members gave victim impact statements, at times addressing Morris about the ways in which Sierra’s murder has affected them.

Sierra’s mother described having “death nausea” every day — a feeling that only comes with the death of an adult child.

“I miss my son Francisco,” she said. “Look at me and look at me good — I am the living version of the walking dead.”

Crying, Sierra’s mother said that she was sorry she was not with him when he died.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there as your soul left this world to meet our creator,” she said.

Speaking to Morris, she said, “You took him from me, and then you just left him there.”

She also said that she hopes Morris finds God, peace and forgiveness during his time in prison.

“I’m sorry for you,” she said. “I’m sorry you didn’t have the love I shared with my son.”