Mustang man claims insanity in slaying

A Mustang man who admits to fatally shooting his father two years ago is asking a jury to acquit him of first-degree murder on insanity grounds.

Morgan E. Cline,  20, went on trial Monday in Oklahoma County District Court. His defense is one that is rarely used at trial in Oklahoma. It is also rarely successful.

Defense attorney Marna Franklin told jurors Tuesday in her opening statement that Cline was “a very, very sick boy” who did not know right from wrong when he shot Richard A. Cline, 58, in bed at the oilman’s Oklahoma City home early April 18, 2009.

She said the high school dropout believed people could read his thoughts, experienced hallucinations of things crawling on his skin and heard voices in his head that he thought were demons or ghosts.

“Morgan Cline is not your normal kid. He is mentally ill,” the defense attorney said.

Prosecutor Suzanne Lavenue in her opening statement pointed to evidence that she contends proves Cline did know right from wrong. She told jurors, for instance, that Cline told one younger brother by phone shortly after the shooting to call police. She called him methodical in his planning.

She also told jurors he said to his mother afterward, before he turned himself in, that he had three options: go to prison, go to a mental institution or kill himself.

Morgan Cline and two younger brothers, Eric and Henry, lived with their mother in Mustang. The two younger brothers spent every other weekend with their father at his Oklahoma City home but Morgan Cline rarely went there, according to testimony.

On April 18, 2009, Morgan Cline, then 18, came in the Oklahoma City home with a rifle and shot his father in the head, according to evidence in the case.

Henry Cline, 16, testified Wednesday he saw his brother from a distance outside their father’s house when his brother turned himself in. “Morgan looked completely not like himself. Out of body, I guess,” Henry Cline told jurors.

Henry Cline said, “What I meant by that – this may sound weird – but, like, he didn’t have a soul.”

Eric Cline, 18, testified Morgan Cline asked him by phone to check to see if their dad was dead. He testified he got no response from his father and replied, “I think he’s dead.” Eric Cline testified Morgan Cline then said, “Good,” and admitted shooting their father “because I hate him.” He testified Morgan Cline then said, “I love you guys. Call the police.”

Eric Cline told police Morgan Cline also had said, “It was for the best,” according to police reports. Eric Cline did not recall that in his testimony Wednesday.

Jurors spent almost two hours Wednesday watching a series of YouTube videos the three sons made mocking their father. In the videos, Morgan Cline impersonated the father, portraying the man as an abusive, self-centered man who cruelly divorced his wife 10 years earlier.

Morgan Cline told police “he believed his dad is evil,” according to police reports. He told police he had “wanted to kill himself and take his dad with him.”

If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces up to life in prison or life in prison without parole. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be sent to a mental hospital and could not be released without a judge’s approval.

Law Offices of Matt Swain

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