Rock Hill man convicted in fire that killed his baby brother asks for parole
A Rock Hill man, described as both a misunderstood teen and a convict who set a 2015 fire that killed his baby brother, told a parole board on Wednesday that he didn’t set that fire.
Minutes later, Jacob Matthew Morgan was denied parole.
Morgan, now 23, was unanimously denied parole by a three-member panel of the S.C. Parole Board after a video conference hearing. Morgan has been in a South Carolina prison for the past six years. Wednesday was his first parole hearing.
He appeared in front of the parole board from the S.C. Department of Corrections MacDougall prison in Berkeley County. Morgan is serving a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, child neglect, and arson in the March 2015 fire.
The parole board met in Columbia.
The three-member parole board consisted of chairman Henry Eldridge, and board members Kim Frederick and Mollie Taylor. Each voted to deny parole after the hearing without discussion or giving any reason for the decision.
Despite pleading guilty to the charges in 2016, Morgan denied to parole board members that he set the fatal fire. Joshua Hill was 14 months old when he died in the mobile home fire, in York County just outside Rock Hill, while Morgan was babysitting.
Parole board hearings are public meetings. The Herald, a part of McClatchy company, obtained permission from South Carolina parole officials to watch and video the hearing.
Morgan denies setting the fire
During the hearing, Morgan said he thinks about the 2015 fire every day.
“It was a terrible thing that happened in my life,” Morgan told the parole board. “I wish it could have been different. I wish I had never lost him.”
Parole board chairman Eldridge asked Morgan, “Why’d you set the fire?”
Morgan then told the board, “I technically didn’t...We’re not sure what caused the fire.”
No one on the parole board made any comment about Morgan saying he did not set the fire.
Morgan told the parole board he had earned a General Equivalency Diploma while in prison and had received mental health treatment.
Morgan sent to prison in 2016
Morgan pleaded guilty in 2016 under what is called an Alford plea, a negotiated agreement with prosecutors. The plea came after he had been indicted on charges of first-degree arson and murder and faced up to life in prison.
His lawyer in 2016 was York County Public Defender B.J. Barrowclough.
Barrowclough did not attend Wednesday’s hearing. Barrowclough said he is no longer Morgan’s lawyer.
When contacted by The Herald after the hearing Wednesday, Barrowclough said, in an Alford plea, a suspect accepts the consequences of guilt without having to admit guilt because a jury likely could find a defendant guilty if the case went to trial. The defendant can maintain innocence in an Alford plea while accepting the conviction, yet get the benefit in lighter sentencing associated with a guilty plea, Barrowclough said.
Barrowclough said Morgan took the plea deal in 2016 because of the uncertainty of a trial. Morgan had never admitted guilt, Barrowlcough said. Barrowclough said he had hoped Morgan would be paroled.
“I’m shocked and disappointed at the result,” Barrowclough said of the parole board decision. “And I hope they didn’t hold it against Jacob that he did not admit setting the fire. Because, Jacob always maintained that he didn’t set the fire, and that’s what an Alford plea is for.”
Mother asks for parole
Morgan’s mother, Julie Morgan, told the parole board Wednesday she was in favor of parole. Jacob Morgan would live with her and has the support of family and friends, Julie Morgan said by video conference in the hearing.
“He’s been through a lot,” she said.
Jacob Morgan and his mother were the only two speakers at the parole hearing.
Police and prosecutors: Morgan set fire intentionally
Police and prosecutors said in 2016 in court that Morgan’s infatuation with fire led to the death of his brother. Morgan set the fire in the mobile home in at least two places and did not call for help despite having a cellphone, prosecutors said. When Lesslie Fire Department firefighters arrived at the mobile home, it was too late to save Hill.
Prosecutors said in 2016 that Morgan had set a fire two weeks before the fatal incident.
After the fatal fire, police and prosecutors said in court that Morgan lied to cover up the crime and knew that his brother would die in the fire.
The prosecutor who convicted Morgan in 2016 has retired. Efforts to reach prosecutors with the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in York County, which handled the case, were unsuccessful Wednesday.
Fire and guilty plea worldwide news event
The fire and Morgan’s subsequent guilty plea gained worldwide attention.
The 2015 fire and the death of the child was first reported by The Herald and other local media. The subsequent indictment against Morgan for murder and the later guilty plea were then covered throughout the Carolinas and worldwide by media outlets such as CNN Headline News and the Daily Mail from the United Kingdom.
Wednesday’s hearing was Morgan’s first parole hearing since he was sent to prison in 2016.
Morgan will be eligible for release on parole under state guidelines in November 2022, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections Web site.
Morgan is eligible for another parole hearing in May 2022, parole officials said.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Rock Hill man convicted in fire that killed his baby brother asks for parole."
