Press Release
District Man Sentenced To 70 Years In Prison For Murder Of 13-Year-Old Daughter, Shooting Of Two Others -Defendant Wounded Ex-Girlfriend And Another Child In The Attack-
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia
WASHINGTON - Robert Carter, 41, was sentenced today to 70 years in prison on charges stemming from the killing of his 13-year-old daughter and the wounding of his ex-girlfriend and a 10-year-old boy, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Carter, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty in October 2012 to one count of first-degree murder while armed and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. He was sentenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the Honorable Thomas J. Motley. Judge Motley sentenced Carter to 45 years in prison for the murder and 25 years for the other charges.
According to the government’s evidence, Carter and his then-girlfriend, Moria Morse, were estranged and he was no longer living with her and the family at the time of the murder. On Oct. 29, 2010, he was at their home in the 500 block of Madison Street NW, alone there for several hours. That afternoon, he went to a store and purchased a Halloween mask and a pair of work gloves. When he returned, he took his daughter, Angel Morse, 13, to the basement. He shot the teenager once in the head. The Halloween mask was later found on the floor, next to the girl, and the gloves were found elsewhere in the house, with her blood on them.
Within an hour, several family members and acquaintances began returning to the home. Carter held them against their will, including Moria Morse’s two sons, 6 and 10, and the defendant’s and Moria Morse’s 16-year-old daughter, who he forced to sit on a couch.
At one point, Carter told the 16-year-old that Angel was in the basement and that he had killed her. When his then-girlfriend returned home, Carter went to the front door, opened it, and pointed a gun at her. The 10-year-old boy jumped up from a couch and lunged at Carter, striking his arm as he began to fire the gun. Carter fired the gun several times, hitting his then-girlfriend once in the abdomen and the 10-year-old once in the leg.
After shooting the gun several more times, Carter stole a friend’s car and fled. He abandoned the vehicle in order to carjack a MetroAccess sedan, taking control of that car with an 84-year-old passenger inside. As Carter kept driving, the woman screamed, “You’re passing my house! This is my block? I’m sick and I’m crippled! Please get me to my house” She was eventually released unharmed. But Carter continued to flee, leading local police officers on a chase into Prince George’s County, where he crashed the MetroAccess car into a building in Capitol Heights. He has been in custody since his arrest after the crash.
“Robert Carter committed one violent act after another in a terrifying afternoon, killing his own 13-year-old daughter, shooting two other innocent victims, and then trying to make his escape by carjacking a MetroAccess car with an elderly passenger inside,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “His complete lack of compassion was astounding and the community will be safer with this sentence that should put him in prison for the rest of his life.”
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen praised the work of the detectives, officers and crime scene technicians who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. He also commended the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegals Phaylyn Hunt, Sandra Lane, and Alesha Matthews Yette, Victim Advocate Marcy Rinker, Witness Security Specialist Debra Cannon, Information Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David J. Gorman and Erin O. Lyons, who prosecuted the case.
13-047Updated February 19, 2015
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