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Thread: Charges Against Ethan Morse Dismissed in 2013 CA Slayings of Samantha Parreira, Matthew Fisher and Bernabed Canela

  1. #1
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    Charges Against Ethan Morse Dismissed in 2013 CA Slayings of Samantha Parreira, Matthew Fisher and Bernabed Canela


    Samantha Parreira, 16


    Diane Reis holds pictures of her son Matthew Fisher, 19




    Merced County DA’s son arrested as suspect in triple homicide

    By Rob Parsons
    Merced Sun-Star

    The Merced County district attorney’s son has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in a triple homicide last year.

    Ethan B. Morse, 18, son of Larry D. Morse II, was arrested Friday afternoon outside his Merced home on a warrant for murder in connection with the shooting deaths of three teenagers last year at an Easter party. The victims, Samantha Parreira, 16; Bernabed Hernandez-Canela, 18; and Matthew Fisher, 19; were killed March 30, 2013, at the house party in the 9200 block of Westside Boulevard near Atwater.

    Detectives with the Sheriff’s Department said the killings were gang-related.

    Morse remained behind bars Saturday without bail at the Mariposa County Jail.

    As of Saturday, there were no documents accusing Ethan B. Morse of any street-gang involvement or of personally using a firearm. His alleged role in the 2013 triple homicide remains under investigation. He was 17 at the time of the shootings.

    Larry D. Morse could not be reached for comment.

    Ethan B. Morse is the fourth person arrested in connection with the deadly holiday party. The other suspects, Jose L. Botello and Jose M. Carballido, both 19-year-old Atwater residents, and Jacob Tellez, 18, of Merced, have been booked on suspicion of first-degree murder as gang participants. Botello and Carballido have also been accused of using firearms, according to Merced Superior Court records.

    Botello, Carballido and Tellez were arrested last week and booked at the Merced County Jail. All three remain in custody.

    The California Attorney General’s office is prosecuting the case against Ethan B. Morse and Tellez. The Merced County District Attorney’s office is handling the cases against Botello and Carballido. It is unclear if Morse plans to turn over those cases to the state attorney in light of his son’s arrest.

    Sheriff’s deputies said Saturday in a brief statement that Ethan B. Morse was recently linked to the triple-homicide case through the investigation into Tellez, though detectives declined to elaborate.

    “Witness cooperation continues to be a vital part of this investigation,” Sgt. Chuck Hale, head of the department’s Major Crimes Unit, said in the statement.

    Investigators believe the party started as an Easter celebration for high school students and escalated after word of the gathering spread through text messages and social media, attracting more than 100 people, including members of several rival Merced County street gangs. Detectives have withheld details, including the number of suspected shooters and whether any weapons have been recovered.

    Deputies have not ruled out the possibility of additional arrests.

    Desiree Parreira, whose daughter Samantha was one of the three victims, said she was aware of the latest arrest. “But, I really have no comment right now. I’m not able to speak about that at this time,” Parreira said Saturday.

    Diane Reis, whose son Mathew Fisher was also a victim, also declined to comment. In a previous statement regarding last week’s three arrests, Reis said she felt “relieved.”

    “Our son was taken from us because of a senseless act of violence. They took an innocent life,” Reis told the Merced Sun-Star. “He was loved by so many people and so many lives were affected by this.”

    Both mothers have pleaded throughout the case for anyone with information to contact the Sheriff’s Department.

    Hernandez-Canela’s family could not be reached for comment.

    Larry D. Morse was elected in 2006 and assumed control of the District Attorney’s office early after Gordon Spencer resigned amid scandal.

    Morse’s oldest son, Dylan Morse, received a three-year prison sentence in 2009 in Sonoma County for driving drunk and causing a two-car crash near Cotati that killed Alexander Ruiz, 22, and injured two others. Dylan Morse has since been released from state prison.

    Ethan B. Morse graduated in June from Golden Valley High School in Merced, where he was a standout varsity wrestler.

    http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/26/...#storylink=cpy

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    November 14, 2014

    DA’s son free; judge dismisses murder charge

    A Merced County judge on Friday formally dismissed a murder charge against the son of the Merced County district attorney, saying prosecutors failed to prove their case by a wide margin.

    Ethan B. Morse, 18, the son of District Attorney Larry D. Morse II, had been accused of driving a getaway vehicle March 30, 2013, the night 18-year-old Bernabed Hernandez-Canela was shot and killed outside a large house party on Westside Boulevard near Atwater.

    Morse’s co-defendant in the case, Jacob Tellez, 18, was charged as the shooter.

    The California attorney general’s office prosecuted the case in light of the allegations against the Merced County district attorney’s son.

    Judge Ronald W. Hansen on Friday determined the case’s prosecutor did not present enough evidence to show that Tellez fired a gun from Morse’s vehicle. The judge went further, however, taking the unusual step of making a formal factual finding that Tellez “did not fire a gun from the Morse vehicle on Westside Boulevard on the evening of March 30, 2013.”

    The factual finding prevents prosecutors from refiling the case on the same evidence.

    “Therefore, Mr. Morse, is not held to answer,” Hansen said in court. “Mr. Morse is released from custody.”

    Larry Morse II said he always believed his son would be exonerated.

    “We have known from the first that Ethan was innocent,” Morse said in a prepared statement. “Within a week of Ethan’s arrest an eyewitness to the crime was located who provided information on who the killers were and confirmed that neither Ethan nor Jacob Tellez were involved.”

    Tellez was held to answer on charges of being a minor in possession of a concealed firearm and street gang participation. He is due back in court Dec. 5 for further proceedings.

    Outside the courtroom Friday, Tellez’s father, Robert Tellez, said he hopes the people responsible for Hernandez-Canela’s death are found.

    Robert Tellez also praised Ethan Morse for “coming forward and doing the right thing.”

    Morse was arrested July 22, about a week after Tellez was arrested. Morse came forward to tell investigators they had arrested the wrong man, that Tellez never fired a gun that night.

    “He ended up putting himself in a bad position to help out an innocent kid,” Robert Tellez said. “He was the first kid to come forward to help, and he spent four months in jail for it. He should be commended for doing the right thing.”

    Tellez’s attorneys, Adam Stewart and Larry Niermeyer, said they were pleased with the ruling and acknowledged surprise over the judge’s decision to make a formal factual finding in the case.

    “That’s extraordinarily rare, but it is real justice,” Stewart said. “These kids didn’t do it, and it sends a clear message to the (Sheriff’s Department) that the people responsible for this crime are still out there.”

    Niermeyer said the ruling showed the judge believed prosecutors and investigators put together a bad case. “They came up with a theory and then tried to present evidence supporting that theory and did not give any weight at all to evidence that would tend to disprove that theory,” he said.

    Morse’s attorney, Kirk McAllister, called the prosecution of Morse “a double tragedy.”

    “The first part of the tragedy is they put an innocent person in jail,” McAllister said. “The second part of the tragedy is there’s a murderer out there who goes free because of it.”

    It was unclear Friday whether state prosecutors would seek an appeal in the case. The attorney general’s office declined to comment.

    Sheriff Tom Cavallero said he continues to “support the deputies, and the detectives in particular.”

    In issuing his ruling, Hansen said statements from a key defense witness, Andrew Masengale, were more “credible” than the secondhand statements made by three other witnesses who were in the vehicle with Morse, Tellez and Masengale.

    Barton Bowers, the deputy attorney general who prosecuted the case, decided not to have three key prosecution witnesses testify during the hearing. Instead, Bowers had detectives testify about the information those witnesses provided.

    “Masengale testified in person and the court was able to evaluate his credibility,” Hansen said.

    The judge went on to say that statements from the prosecution witnesses were “conflicting and contradictory.” Those witnesses said Tellez fired two shots from Morse’s vehicle, killing Hernandez-Canela. The judge noted the prosecution witnesses initially denied seeing Tellez fire a gun and changed their statements after detectives told them Tellez made a taped confession.

    The idea of a taped confession was based on a 911 call made inadvertently from Tellez’s cellphone the night of the shooting. On the recording, deputies said, Tellez described shooting a man at a party on Westside Boulevard. But Hansen said he did not believe the 911 call contained any such confession.

    “The court has listened to those tapes, both the enhanced version and the original version, and I cannot hear any admission of shooting in those tapes,” Hansen said.

    In laying out his findings, Hansen explained that the court believed the tape actually showed more evidence of Tellez’s innocence because it appeared to corroborate Masengale’s testimony.

    Masengale told the court Tellez tried to pull a gun in the backseat of the car but that the gun got stuck on a seat belt and Tellez couldn’t get the window rolled down. Masengale also said he grabbed Tellez’s arm to prevent him from shooting.

    The judge also noted that the physical evidence in the case did not support the theory that Tellez and Morse were responsible for killing Hernandez-Canela. Hansen noted that Hernandez-Canela was shot with both a .25-caliber and a .38-caliber handgun. All the testimony indicated Tellez was carrying a .22-caliber handgun.

    Hernandez-Canela was also shot at close range, less than 7 feet away from the gun, the judge noted.

    Hansen also took issue with the prosecution theory that Tellez would have fired two deadly shots from the window of a moving vehicle, striking a running target on a dark and rainy night. Hansen said that theory “lacked credulity” and was “difficult to believe.”

    Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/lo...#storylink=cpy
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  3. #3
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    STATEMENT FROM DISTRICT ATTORNEY LARRY D. MORSE II

    When our son, Ethan, learned that Jacob Tellez had been arrested for murder in connection with the Easter shootings of 2013, he immediately told us that Tellez was innocent. He voluntarily, and without any legal counsel, met with detectives to tell them Tellez had not fired a gun from the car Ethan was driving and could not be guilty of these crimes. For having the courage to come forward to prevent a horrific miscarriage of justice Ethan has paid a terrible price. He was accused, arrested, lost his summer job, lost the college wrestling scholarship he had worked four years to earn, along with two years of college tuition that had been saved but was now being used to hire an attorney. He spent four months in a county jail, was unable to attend his grandfather’s funeral and has been subjected to unrelenting hatred from people who have no idea what the facts in this case are.

    We have known from the first that Ethan was innocent. Within a week of Ethan’s arrest an eyewitness to the crime was located who provided information who the killers were and confirmed that neither Ethan nor Jacob Tellez were involved. Because of fears for his own safety, the witness refused to meet with detectives or make any statement. Consequently, Ethan’s attorney, Kirk McAllister, conducted the investigation that should have been done from the outset and established through the physical evidence the facts that led Judge Hansen to make a finding today that no gun was fired from Ethan’s vehicle.

    Our hearts go out to Bernabed Hernandez Canela’s family as the individuals responsible for his death are still at large. The Sheriff’s Department knows who they are and, hopefully, will redirect their efforts to their arrest.

    From the outset of this nightmare, I’ve never lost faith in the system and am most grateful to all those who have reserved judgment and allowed the truth to prevail.

    Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/lo...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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