Elderly Utah man accused of brutally murdering wife died the next day, police say

Pat Reavy and Matt Brooks, KSL.com

LEHI, Utah (KSL.com) — An elderly Lehi man who was arrested Friday and accused of brutally killing his wife died over the weekend after he was transported to a hospital from the Utah County Jail.

Ronald J. Morgan, 85, was arrested at 1:15 p.m. Friday and booked into jail for investigation of aggravated murder. He was being watched at the jail for undisclosed medical reasons and on Saturday appeared to suffer some type of medical problem, said Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon. A nurse who works at the jail was called to look at Morgan. She called for an ambulance shortly after, Cannon said.

Morgan was taken to Utah Valley Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy will be conducted to determine a cause of death. Because Morgan died while in police custody, Cannon says an officer-involved critical incident investigation has been invoked.

Police were originally called Friday to Morgan’s residence, 671 N. Locust Lane, on a report of a woman covered in blood who was dead. When officers arrived, they found Morgan also had blood on him and he “made the excited utterance that he had killed her,” according to a police booking affidavit.

The wife was found in a bedroom and “appeared to have suffered multiple traumatic injuries.”

The woman’s name has not yet been released.

Morgan was taken to a local hospital to be checked out before being taken to jail. While there, he stated that “he was exhausted because what he had done wasn’t as easy as shooting her,” the affidavit says.

Lehi police later conducted a formal interview with Morgan.

“During the interview, Ronald explained that he had been frustrated for several months and that frustration had been building and building until he just lost it. I asked what he meant when he said he ‘lost it.’ Ronald smirked and stated that he had killed her. Ronald described strangling the victim as well as punching her and stomping on her. Ronald also described grabbing multiple items that he used to bludgeon the victim’s head,” the affidavit states.

“Ronald stated that prior to this incident he would get bad thoughts when he was frustrated with the victim. Ronald later admitted that he must have thought about killing the victim when he was having those bad thoughts.”