Morgan Leppert Video

0:00She was only 15, but what she did was unforgivable. The Morgan Leopard case.

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8 secondsIn smalltown Florida, a 15-year-old girl made a series of decisions that would cost an innocent man his life and cost her her own freedom, possibly forever.

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21 secondsMorgan was in love, desperate to run away from a life she didn’t want, and willing to do whatever it took to escape.

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30 secondsHowever, what Morgan did on one night in 2008 crossed a line that no court, no judge, and no amount of remorse could walk back.

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41 secondsBy the time she was 15 years old, she had fallen into a relationship with a 22-year-old man named Toby Lee Lowry.

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50 secondsHer parents disapproved of the relationship. Understandably so. The age

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56 secondsgap alone raised serious concerns. Her parents disapproved of the relationship.

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1 minute, 3 secondsUnderstandably so. The age gap alone raised serious concerns. Her parents didn’t approve. So, the plan was simple.

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1 minute, 13 secondsRun away together. They didn’t have a car. The solution they chose was to steal one from James Thomas Stewart.

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1 minute, 23 secondsThey entered James Stewart’s home. It went wrong fast. James, born without

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1 minute, 30 secondshands, was beaten and stabbed. When he had trouble breathing, the judge later said Morgan was told to find a plastic

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1 minute, 38 secondsbag to suffocate him. That bag, the judge said, proved intent.

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1 minute, 45 secondsThey took the truck and fled. About a week later in Texas, Morgan was recognized from a nationwide Amber Alert.

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1 minute, 55 secondsToby Lowry, who was 22 at the time of the crime and facing the death penalty,

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2 minutes, 1 secondmade a deal. He agreed to a life sentence in exchange for testifying against Morgan.

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2 minutes, 9 secondsIn 2009, Morgan became Florida’s youngest female prison inmate. Life without parole.

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2 minutes, 17 secondsYears later, after the Florida Supreme Court said juveniles must get special consideration, she got a new hearing. At

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2 minutes, 25 seconds23, in a blue prison uniform, she read from notebook paper, “I regret every one of those choices we made that night. I

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2 minutes, 34 secondshope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

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2 minutes, 40 secondsJudge Patty Christensen’s reasoning. She said she was constrained by law, but had to give life again because Morgan

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2 minutes, 48 secondsintended to kill Stuart. The sentence would be reviewable in 25 years. Morgan

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2 minutes, 55 secondsalso got 50 years each for burglary with battery and robbery with a deadly weapon. While inside, she earned her GED and a cosmetology certificate.

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