NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Prosecutors have decided against seeking the death penalty against a man charged with murder in the stabbing death of an ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of a suburban Philadelphia train station last summer.
The (Pottstown) Mercury reports that Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kathleen McLaughlin said prosecutors decided that aggravating factors needed to support capital punishment weren’t present in the case against 18-year-old Gilbert Newton III.
The decision by prosecutors came as Newton waived formal arraignment and pleaded not guilty to first- and third-degree murder and a weapons count in the July 27 slaying of 18-year-old Morgan McCaffery.
Abington Township police reported finding McCaffery’s body near her running car in the Meadowbrook Train Station parking lot. An autopsy indicated that she had been stabbed and slashed at least 30 times. Less than two hours later, Philadelphia police were called to a home by a woman who said her son was covered with blood and reported having hurt the young woman.
Police said a friend of the victim told them McCaffery and Newton had ended a year-long relationship about a month ago and he had been abusive in the relationship. Her current boyfriend reported her saying that Newton wanted to meet her to discuss their breakup, they said.
Defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. has called the case “absolutely devastating” for both families, noting that both victim and defendant were young people with good grades and no criminal history. He said his client “apparently … completely lost it in a moment’s rage” and he considers the case manslaughter rather than murder.
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