EVERETT — A teenage mother accused of plotting an armed robbery that ended in the shooting of a Mountlake Terrace man likely won’t be out of prison until her infant son is in elementary school.
Samantha Morgan, 19, was sentenced Tuesday to more than decade behind bars for the May 6 robbery. Two other people, including the gunman, have already begun serving their prison time. Morgan pleaded guilty in June to first-degree assault.
She is accused of hatching the plan to rob a 24-year-old man she once dated. The teen was upset that the man continued to send her text messages asking to see her. She enlisted the help of her current boyfriend, Mark Till, and friend Victoria Wolff to scare the man and rob him. Morgan expected that Till would be armed with a loaded gun and planned to point it at the victim, court papers said.
Till ended up shooting the man. The trio left the victim lying in a pool of blood. They didn’t summon medical aid or determine if the man survived, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Janice Albert said.
Albert called Morgan the “luckiest girl on the face of the earth.” The teen was a fraction of an inch away from being charged with murder and facing life in prison, Albert said.
“There is no just sentence except the high end,” Albert said. “She has earned every day of it.”
Albert said Morgan already has received leniency. Prosecutors could have tacked on additional charges, including filing the case so she faced additional mandatory prison time for committing a crime with a gun.
The victim was at Tuesday’s hearing with his family. He told Superior Court Judge Linda Krese that he now lives in fear. He also said he is happy to be alive.
Morgan’s attorney Thomas Cox said his client has no criminal history, and he asked for leniency.
“I’m not sure where this came from. She has no juvenile record. I’m not sure she was herself,” Cox said.
The attorney also urged Krese to consider that Morgan has a young son she needs to raise.
Morgan apologized, wiping away tears. She told Krese she was mad at the victim and reacted in a way she shouldn’t have.
Morgan asked the man to forgive her.
“I’m very thankful you didn’t die,” she said.
Krese agreed that Morgan deserved a high-end sentence. The judge said Morgan initiated a violent crime that severely injured a man and she did it knowing she was risking her relationship with her then-3-month-old son.
“I feel for her child, who is going to be without her for many years,” Krese said.
Till, 19, pleaded guilty in June to first-degree assault and was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. Wolff, 17, was sentenced to more than two years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree burglary.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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