THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190596
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
For three days last summer, Elijah O. Morris Jr. haunted parking lots in the Military Circle area, robbing women of their valuables at gunpoint, then driving off in their cars.
Once he almost drove off with one victim's baby. When the mother begged him to let her grab the 1-year-old boy from the back seat, Morris glanced around, said, ``I didn't see Shorty - yeah, yeah, yeah,'' then let the woman retrieve her son before driving away.
On Thursday, at the end of a two-day trial, jurors recommended 114 years in prison without parole. They found Morris guilty of 17 counts of carjacking, robbery, firearms use and possession of a firearm by a felon, all stemming from three carjackings in the Military Circle area on July 8 and 10.
In each case, the carjackings at Military Circle Mall and a nearby Kmart occurred in broad daylight; the victims were women who were entering or leaving their cars in the parking lots. Morris appeared without warning at the driver's door, pointing a gun and telling the victims to leave their cars and valuables behind.
Morris, 22, faced a maximum of seven life sentences plus additional years. His mercy to the young mother and the fact that no one was hurt were the few defenses he had. He still faces charges on a July 7 carjacking, also in the Military Circle area.
``I ran into Hechts with my baby,'' testified Toni N. Jones. ``I passed out. . . . I was screaming, `Can you please help me?' I was just screaming and crying, I was so scared.''
Morris' spree began about 7 p.m. on July 8, testimony showed. Teyla Morris and her friend Pamela Singleton had been shopping in J.C. Penneys. Teyla Morris, not related to the defendant, had just opened the door to her Mazda van and put the key in the ignition when Elijah Morris suddenly appeared behind her.
``I told my friend, `There's a guy standing there,' '' Singleton said. ``She looked up, then she started sliding across the seat going `Okay, okay, okay.' I didn't see the gun till I reached for my purse and he pointed the gun at me and said, `You leave yours, too.' ''
The two women watched helplessly as Morris drove toward Virginia Beach Boulevard with their valuables. ``It happened so fast,'' Singleton said. ``It was then it set in - I felt stunned, shocked, scared.''
Thirty minutes later, Elijah Morris materialized again, this time across Military Highway in the parking lot of Kmart. Bess Melvin, a retired Norfolk school teacher, had just gotten into her Plymouth Voyager van when Morris appeared at her side, pointing a gun.
``I heard him say, `Get out of the car,' '' Melvin testified. ``When I turned and looked, he said, `Bitch, I said get out of the car. This is a gun.'. . . He told me not to make any trouble, then he drove away.''
Both vehicles were found abandoned nearby later that night. The keys were in the floor, but the women's purses were missing.
Shortly after noon on July 10, Morris struck again. Toni Jones had parked outside Hechts at Military Circle Mall and was getting out of her car when Morris appeared, motioning with the gun. ``He said, `Bitch, give me everything you got,' . . . then started to get in the car,'' Jones testified.
Suddenly, Jones realized her son was in the back seat. ``I asked him if I could get my baby out,'' she testified. It was apprently only then that Morris noticed the child was in the car.
Morris drove off in Jones' Lexus, but it would be his last carjacking. He was apprehended about an hour later in Hampton after attempting to evade police.
He was also charged with the armed robbery of a car in Hampton on July 2. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Elijah O. Morris Jr. preyed on women in daylight robberies in
Norfolk store parking lots.
by CNB