KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A woman has been found guilty after being charged with setting a fatal house fire that killed a man early last year.
On Thursday, February 13th a jury found 33-year-old Melissa Morgan guilty of murder and arson in the death of Zachariah Hayes, whose remains were found at a burned out home in Kalamazoo following a fire in February 2019.
Morgan is now facing a mandatory sentence of up to life in prison after being convicted on counts of first-degree arson and first-degree murder.
The verdict comes after a three week trial, where prosecutors attempted to establish Morgan as having motive to kill Hayes, showing the jury text messages detailing how she had little regard for his life and was implicated in setting the fire.
During closing arguments, Kalamazoo County prosecutors told the jury they believed Morgan decided to kill Hayes after he refused to get her drugs.
Text messages collected from before the incident show Morgan asking multiple people for drugs and food. Also in the messages was Morgan telling her boyfriend that Hayes raped her several times the night of the fatal fire, at one point texting “Imma kill him”.
Defense Attorney Eusebio Solis presented an alternative course of events, saying that Morgan’s boyfriend Justin Flegel was the one who set the fire that killed Hayes in retaliation for the alleged rapes.
Solis argued during the last day of arguments that the prosecution’s case was incomplete, and that testimony from Morgan’s interrogation by police detectives was while she was in distress following the alleged sexual assault.
Following final court proceedings jury deliberations began after 4 P.M. on Wednesday, February 5th, reaching a final verdict after seven days in the courtroom.
Morgan is scheduled to return to court to be sentenced at 1:30 P.M. on Monday, March 16th.
