Father Pleads Guilty To Killing Children

A Port Angeles man accused of shooting his two children to death in their beds pleaded guilty Tuesday and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Richard Morgan, 32, spoke quietly and didn’t look directly at Clallam County Superior Court Judge George Wood. He said he understood the elements of the complaint and what prosecutors had to prove if the case went to trial.

“The plan was for me and the children to go to heaven together. I only thought about this for a few minutes before I caused the deaths,” Morgan said in court documents.

Morgan pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of 7-year-old Meghan and 5-year-old Zach. He shot the children after a fight with his estranged wife, Londa Morgan, on April 5 at their Port Angeles home.

Morgan kept police at bay for six hours before he was tackled by an officer on a porch behind his house and arrested. Inside, officers found the bodies of the two children lying in their beds. Each had been shot in the head.

Richard and Londa Morgan separated March 6 after a nearly nine-year marriage, and she filed for divorce on May 15. Court papers also say Richard Morgan was having back problems and apparently had been cut off from disability payments.

“Previously he told her that if she took the children away from him, he would make life living hell for her,” County Prosecutor David Bruneau said in court.

Bruneau had considered seeking the death penalty against Morgan. He said outside court that he met twice with Londa Morgan and she told him she was satisfied with the option of life in prison without parole.