Punishment denied for Torture, Murder, and Rape
On January 8, 1981, twenty-one-year-old Michael Morales murdered and raped seventeen year-old Terri Lynn Winchell, with his nineteen-year-old cousin, Rick Ortega. In early 1980, Ortega and seventeen-year-old Randy Blythe had a homosexual relationship. During this time, Blythe also had a dating relationship with Terri Winchell. While Terri didn’t know about the homosexual relationship of Blythe and Ortega, Ortega knew about Blythe’s and Terri’s relationship. Ortega was extremely jealous of this relationship.Ortega and Morales conspired to murder Terri as “pay back” for Terri’s involvement with Blythe. Ortega and Blythe had a stormy relationship. Ortega reacted in threatening manner to Blythe’s attempts to end their relationship. Ortega was also openly hostile towards Terri. In the weeks before the murder, Ortega set up a ruse to trick Terri into believing that Ortega wanted to make amends and become her friend. Morales “practiced” how he was going to strangle Terri, and told his girlfriend on the day of the murder how he was going to strangle and “hurt” someone.
The day of the murder, Ortega tricked Terri into accompanying him and Morales in Ortega’s car to a remote area near Lodi, California. There, Morales attacked Terri from behind and attempted to strangle her with his belt. Terri struggled and the belt broke in two. Morales then took out a hammer and began hitting Terri in the head with it. She screamed for Ortega to help and attempted to fight off the attack, ripping her own hair out of her scalp in the struggle. Morales beat Terri into unconsciousness, crushing her skull and leaving 23 identifiable wounds in her skull.
Morales took Terri from the car and instructed Ortega to leave and come back later. Ortega left and Morales then dragged Terri face-down across the road and into a vineyard. Morales then raped her while she lay unconscious. Morales then started to leave, but went back and stabbed Terri four times in the chest to make sure she died. Morales then left Terri, calling her “a fucking bitch,” as he walked away. Terri died from both the head and chest wounds. Her body was left in the vineyard naked from the waist down, with her sweater and bra pulled up over her breasts.
Morales confessed to killing Terri to jailhouse informant Bruce Samuelson, as well as his girlfriend Raquel Cardenas and his housemate Patricia Flores. Morales threatened both Cardenas and Flores prior to his trial so they would not testify about what he told them. Specifically, he admitted that he sat behind Terri after she had been lured into Ortega’s car, he put his belt around Terri’s neck and strangled her until the belt broke, he repeatedly hit her over the head with a hammer until she was unconscious, he took her out of the car and dragged her into a vineyard, he raped her, and he left her but then returned to be “sure” she was dead.
Within two days of the murder, Morales was arrested at his residence. The police found Morales’ broken belt, containing Terri’s blood, hidden under a bedroom mattress. The police also found three knives, the hammer bearing traces of blood hidden in the refrigerator vegetable crisper, and blood-stained floor matts from Ortega’s car in the trash. Terri’s purse and credit card were also in the house. Ortega’s blood-spattered car was impounded. Morales had used $11 from Terri’s purse to buy beer, wine, and cigarettes on the night of the murder.
So after all of this, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel and retired Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath are using their power as "judicial legislators" to ensure Morales' avoidance of his deserved execution. The idea the Morales must be comfortable when he is executed is beyond reasonable expectations in the carriage of justice.
