NORRISTOWN — A Pottstown man told a jury he feared a Chester County man had a gun and was going to kill him and acted in self-defense when he fatally shot the unarmed man with whom he had an angry exchange during a child custody transfer in the borough.
Kevin Maurice Morgan 35, of the 500 block of May Street, took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday at his homicide trial at which he is charged with first- and third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering other persons and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the alleged 7:13 p.m. June 27, 2023, fatal shooting of Derek Mayo, 38, of Parkesburg.
“Derek Mayo was charging at me and my pregnant wife. I saw him grabbing at his waist and he said, ‘This what you want? This what you want? I’ll kill you,’” Morgan told a Montgomery County Court jury under questioning by defense lawyer John Han. “I thought he was going to pull out a gun and shoot. I was feeling scared. I pulled out my gun and shot one time.”
Mayo suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest and was later pronounced dead.
At one point during his testimony, Morgan buried his face in his hands and appeared to weep and used a tissue to dab at his eyes.
However, during cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Allison Ruth, Mayo became more animated and argumentative at times. Ruth pointed out that the evidence showed that Mayo was unarmed.
“You never saw a gun, correct?” Ruth asked Morgan during an intense cross-examination.
“I saw him grabbing at his waist like he was going to pull out one,” Morgan responded.
The fatal shooting occurred in the area of May and Hale streets, a short distance from Morgan’s home in Pottstown, as Morgan was transferring custody of his 12-year-old daughter to her mother, Kelsay Love-Sheller. Mayo, who was dating Love-Sheller, was a passenger in Love-Sheller’s vehicle and a confrontation erupted between Mayo and Morgan at that time, according to testimony.
Morgan testified he didn’t expect Mayo, with whom he had heated exchanges in the past, to be accompanying Love-Sheller to the custody transfer.
During the trial, Ruth and co-prosecutor Courtney McMonagle argued Morgan had the specific intent to kill when he took a loaded gun to the custody transfer and fired it at the unarmed Mayo during the heated verbal exchange between the men. Prosecutors argued the specific intent to kill, a requirement for a first-degree murder conviction, “can happen in the blink of an eye, the snap of a finger.”
But Han suggested Morgan believed Mayo was armed and that Morgan acted in self-defense when Mayo charged at him. Han argued Morgan acted to stop Mayo from doing harm to his family, referring to Morgan’s pregnant wife, Julise, who also was present at the custody transfer.
At one point during his testimony, Morgan described his reaction to be “like a heat of passion.”
Julise Morgan testified on Wednesday that she witnessed Mayo get out of Love-Sheller’s vehicle and dart toward her and Morgan.
“I was horrified. He was coming so fast. He just wouldn’t stop,” Julise testified, adding she observed Mayo motion toward his hip and state, “Is this what you want?” “I thought he had a gun.”
Julise testified she heard “a pop” and realized that Mayo had been shot.
Morgan testified that Mayo had threatened him in the past.
Han explained Morgan had a license to legally carry a firearm and carried one since experiencing a “traumatic, horrific event” in January 2012 when he witnessed the fatal shooting of his childhood friend after a night out at a West Chester bar.
Morgan, who cooperated as a prosecution witness against the person convicted of that homicide in Chester County Court in 2013, testified he suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety after that incident and lived with a fear that somebody was going to harm him. Morgan told the jury that he carried a gun ever since.
“I felt like somebody was out to get me, like I needed protection. Everywhere I go I always carry my gun. I sleep with a gun under my pillow,” Morgan testified.
“My husband carries his gun everywhere with him. Kevin was very scared and fearful for his life all the time. He was scared so he kept his gun on him at all times. I understood it,” Julise Morgan added when she testified as a defense witness.
Testimony at the trial before Judge William R. Carpenter is expected to wrap up on Thursday and the jury could be deliberating Morgan’s fate later in the day.
A conviction of first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, or a hardness of heart, cruelty or recklessness of consequences, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
The investigation began about 7:13 p.m. June 27 when Pottstown police responded to a report of a shooting in the 500 block of May Street. A 911 call was made by Love-Sheller, who reported that her boyfriend, Mayo, had been shot, according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective James Lavin and Pottstown Detective Adrian Stead.
Arriving officers found Mayo lying in the roadway on Hale Street just south of May Street, between the curb and the passenger side of Love-Sheller’s Kia Optima vehicle, “suffering an obvious gunshot wound to the chest,” Lavin and Stead wrote in the criminal complaint.
Detectives noted that Mayo “was not armed with any type of weapon.”
Lavin testified that no fired cartridge casings were recovered at the scene. Lavin added there were no weapons found in Love-Sheller’s vehicle during a search.
Love-Sheller approached police at the scene and pointed to Morgan’s May Street home and said, “My baby dad just shot him, he’s in that house,” according to the criminal complaint.
Love-Sheller testified there was a history of tension between Morgan and Mayo. She said that when Morgan approached her vehicle and placed their daughter in the rear passenger seat during the custody exchange he observed Mayo in the front passenger seat and immediately began berating Mayo.
“He came like on 100. He was not calm, he was very aggressive,” Love-Sheller described Morgan for the jury.
Love-Sheller testified Morgan refused to close the rear passenger door so she moved her vehicle forward in order to distance Morgan from her vehicle so the door could close. Mayo then asked Love-Sheller to stop the vehicle and he exited the vehicle, according to testimony.
“Derek stood outside the car and two seconds later he got shot,” Love-Sheller testified. “I got out of the car and me and Derek tried to make our way to each other.”
A witness to the shooting told detectives the victim did not make any motion during the argument that warranted “that response by the shooter,” according to court documents.
Morgan allegedly retreated to his residence after the shooting.
Mayo was taken to Pottstown Hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined Mayo’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
Morgan complied with police commands to come out of his residence and when he was asked “Where is the gun?” Morgan replied, “In the house,” according to the arrest affidavit.
During an initial search of the home, police found two semi-automatic handguns in a second-floor bedroom.
After a search warrant was obtained, police found a total of six guns in the house, five of them semi-automatic pistols, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
County Detective Eric Nelson testified one of the guns, a Taurus G2C, was found with an empty cartridge jammed in the barrel. Authorities alleged the Taurus was the murder weapon.
“The shell casing is stuck in the chamber and ejection port area,” explained Nelson, adding there were eight cartridges loaded in the gun’s magazine.
Morgan allegedly made several statements to the first responding officers that it was “self-defense,” according to court papers.
