DA moves to revoke bond again for Somerville man charged with domestic

Nov. 21—A Morgan County assistant district attorney on Tuesday moved a second time to revoke the bond of a Somerville man awaiting trial on charges of domestic violence by strangulation, child abuse, and chemical endangerment of a child following his latest arrest.

Walter Raymond Lee Morrow, 36, was arrested on Monday and charged with third-degree domestic violence harassment, according to the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office.

Morrow was indicted by a December 2020 grand jury on charges of domestic violence by strangulation, a Class B felony, and child abuse, a Class C felony. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 27.

On May 30, 2021, Morrow was arrested and charged with chemical endangerment of a child, a Class B felony, and he was indicted by a grand jury in November of that year. He has pleaded not guilty. That trial is also scheduled for Jan. 27.

While out on bond, according to court filings, Morrow was arrested in the city of Madison and charged with fourth-degree theft on Feb. 25 of this year. Morgan County Assistant District Attorney Courtney Schellack moved to revoke Morrow’s bond for the theft charge on Sept. 23, and a circuit judge ordered Morrow’s bond conditionally revoked the same day.

Schellack on Tuesday filed a supplement to her September bond revocation motion: “This supplement is to inform the court of the defendant’s new arrest.” It does not appear, based on court records, that Morrow was arrested following his September bond revocation.

Morrow’s harassment charge stems from a deposition sworn on July 19 wherein the deponent claimed they had been punched, slapped and bitten by Morrow. That same day, Morrow’s wife, whom he married in April 2023, petitioned Morgan County for a protection from abuse order against him. A circuit judge granted a temporary ex parte order pending a hearing scheduled for Jan. 16.

The petition claimed Morrow, who recently had surgery, became agitated with his wife on July 10 and yelled at her over the amount of medication she gave him, which he deemed insufficient.

“He slammed his walker at me (and) open hand slapped me on my left cheek,” the petition reads. The next morning, according to the petition, Morrow was still angry, and he punched and head-butted his wife.

“I tried to call 911, but he pushed my phone out of my hand and said he’d kill me if I called the cops,” Morrow’s wife wrote.

Circuit Judge Stephen Brown banned Morrow from his wife’s residence, regardless of ownership, and ordered him to not go within 300 feet of his wife. Morrow was also ordered not to contact, harass, stalk, annoy, threaten, or have physical or violent contact with his wife.

Morrow’s 2021 chemical endangerment of a child charge stems from a drug screen ordered by the Department of Human Resources. According to an investigator’s affidavit, Morrow and another woman (not the woman he later married) had an infant child together, and all three tested positive for meth.

In 2019, the same woman petitioned Morgan County for a protection from abuse order against Morrow, claiming he had choked and punched her.

“Morrow is also abusive to his minor daughter,” she wrote. “He has punched, kicked and dropped her on her head.”

A circuit judge granted a temporary ex parte protection order before it was later dismissed after both parties failed to appear for a hearing on the matter.

The woman also petitioned for, and was granted, an ex parte protection order against Morrow in 2018. “Morrow choked me to the point I felt like I was about to pass out,” she wrote.

The protection order was later dismissed at the woman’s request.

Morrow’s 2020 indictment on strangulation and child abuse charges states he placed his child “in fear of imminent serious physical injury by closure or compression of the blood vessels or air passages of the neck as a result of external pressure on the neck.”

Morrow also “willfully maltreat(ed)” his child by hitting her with a paddle, according to the indictment.

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.

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