Inmate Given Life Without Parole In 2006 Slaying of Roxbury Guard

A Maryland state prison inmate who killed a correctional officer during an escape from a Hagerstown hospital two years ago was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In Howard County Circuit Court, Judge Joseph P. Manck spared Brandon T. Morris from a possible death sentence, citing mitigating factors in the case that included the defendant's childhood in Baltimore, where he grew up in an abusive household and where his father was largely absent and in prison.

Morris, 22, did not react as Manck told him he was imposing a sentence designed to "make sure that you die in prison." In all, Morris was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison.

On Jan. 18, he was convicted on 22 counts, including first-degree murder, in connection with his escape and the slaying of Jeffrey A. Wroten, 44, the first Maryland correctional officer to be killed in the line of duty in 22 years.

"You are an evil man, sir," Manck said. "You took from the Wroten family the center of their universe."

As he addressed Wroten's wife and children, Manck obliquely referred to the slaying of his own mother years earlier, telling them that he was once in their position, that he experienced the same "nightmare" and that he understood their need for "closure." Manck noted that appeals in death penalty cases can stretch on for years -- he cited one case that has been going on for 25 years -- and said that victims' families often must sit through painful retrials, listening to defendants "again, again and again."

"It is an outrageous way to penalize victims," Manck said.

Afterward, Tracey Wroten said that she was disappointed that her husband's killer was not sentenced to death and that she disagreed with the judge's assertions, adding that the willingness to sit through appeals is "a decision best left to the family."

"It would have been worth the process for true justice to be served," she said.

Tracey Wroten, who has five children, ages 7 to 17, also disagreed with the notion that Morris's difficult childhood mitigated his crimes.

"I have no mercy for him," she said. "He didn't show my children's father mercy."

Arcangelo Tuminelli, Morris's lead attorney, said he thought the sentence was appropriate, although he said his client "did a very evil thing."

Charles P. Strong, state's attorney for Washington County, said he was disappointed that the judge did not impose the death sentence but said he thought that prosecutors had "done our duty."

He, too, questioned the relevance of the details of Morris's upbringing in Baltimore. "This crime occurred in Washington County, not Baltimore," Strong said.

Morris was serving an eight-year sentence for assault and robbery when he fatally shot Wroten, a correctional officer at the Roxbury Correctional Institution, in January 2006 at Washington County Hospital. Prosecutors said Morris got Wroten's gun and shot him in the face. Morris eventually carjacked a taxi outside the hospital and was apprehended after police located the taxi about five miles from the hospital, prosecutors said.

He was tried in Howard after requesting a change of venue from Washington County, a rural area dominated by three state correctional facilities.

Capt. Mark Martin, an official at Roxbury, said he did not expect correctional officers to publicly protest the judge's sentence. "I hope they take it with a degree of professionalism," Martin said.

Roxbury Warden Rod Sowers declined to say whether he thought the sentence was appropriate, speaking only of the Wroten family and his belief that the sentencing would "bring closure."