Judge gives woman 7 years for murder-for-hire scheme

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Posted 7:07AM on Friday, January 31, 2003

CHARLESTON, S.C. - A North Charleston woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison after she pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire scheme. ``I regret my actions and for the pain and suffering I have caused my friends and family,'' Alma Elizabeth Morris, 53, told the judge Thursday. ``I don't know what made me take these actions.'' Morris had pleaded guilty in August to use of interstate commerce facilities with the intent that murder be committed for hire. Officials say Morris contacted her sister, Virginia Pearl Lackey, of Chickamauga, Ga., in June to help her plan to kill Gloria Jean Witcher of Moncks Corner who Morris believed was having an affair with her husband. Along with maps and photographs, Morris gave Lackey $7,500 as a partial payment for the crime, authorities say. Lackey then contacted Jerry Cargle, of Ringgold, Ga., to assist in the scheme. Cargle was promised $15,000 when the crime was completed, officials say. Lackey and Cargle have pleaded guilty to participating in the plan to kill Witcher. For 16 years, Morris had worked for the Department of Defense and she had an exemplary work record, according her pre-sentence report. She had no criminal history. Mackey Morris, 62, who admitted to the affair, told U.S. District Judge David C. Norton he caused his wife mental anguish. ``This is not the woman I've known for the past 25 years,'' Morris told the judge Thursday. ``I ask for leniency.'' Morris' attorney, Andy Savage, said his client will report to prison in about a month, and she must serve slightly more than six years before being eligible for release. Norton also ordered Morris to pay $868 in restitution for Witcher's loss of two days wages while in protective custody and for the FBI's costs for housing and feeding her.