Judge: Domestic violence allegations not admissible in Morphew murder trial
CAÑON CITY, Colo. (KRDO) -- In a Freemont County courtroom Thursday, a judge decided abuse allegations against Barry Morphew presented by prosecutors will not be allowed in the upcoming trial.
Morphew has been charged with murdering his wife Suzanne Morphew, who went missing on Mother's Day in 2020. However, he's denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Prosecutors allege Morphew beat his wife Suzanne on multiple occasions. Prosecutors laid out several acts of alleged domestic violence in court, showing text messages Suzanne had sent to a friend about the alleged abuse.
However, the judge overseeing the case says those allegations are going to be off-limits in the trial. The judge said that the evidence, the way it was presented Thursday, wouldn't provide a fair trial for Morphew and thus denied the motion to include the text messages as evidence.
"Because it wasn't the victim testifying to the prior bad acts, it's the victim telling somebody else, those prior bad acts are not necessarily as reliable," legal expert Jeremy Loew explained.
It's a big blow to the prosecution's argument that Morphew killed his wife.
"The prosecution obviously wants prior acts of domestic violence that Mr. Morphew allegedly committed to be admitted so that the jury hears that he has potentially done this before and he's more likely to do it again," Lowe explained.
Loew believes it's not uncommon for potential evidence to be kept out of a trial, but it is rarer with domestic violence allegations over other possible crimes.
It's another odd twist to a murder trial that hasn't even started yet.
"I'm surprised by nothing in this case, the fact that we've had the judge recused, we've had a change of venue, we've had evidence torn out, we've had a change of prosecutors, we've had a delay in even charging this case because there are issues," Loew said.
Thursday's hearing was the first held in Fremont County. A judge granted a change of venue out of Salida, where the Morphews lived, over fears of a tainted jury after so much attention in the small town.
The murder trial is set to begin in April.
