Dontae Morris Charged with Tampa Police Homicides and 2 Others

Tampa’s highest-profile murder defendant in quite some time now faces four charges of murder in three separate incidents. Dontae Rashawn Morris is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Tampa police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab earlier this month.

Morris has also been charged with the May 18th killing of Derek Anderson at an east Tampa apartment complex, in what authorities suggest was a failed robbery.  Most recently, Morris was charged with killing Harold Wright on June 8th in what was apparently a drug-related shooting.

Curtis and Kocab were both shot in the head after Curtis pulled over a car in which Morris was a passenger. After discovering an active arrest warrant for Morris, Curtis called for backup and Kocab arrived. A dashboard video recorder in one of the officers’ cruisers allegedly captured the shootings, according to an arrest affidavit.

Tampa Bay area law enforcement then spent four days searching for Morris. He was ultimately persuaded to turn himself in.

Morris faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a gun. According to police, Ballistics tests by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined that Morris used the same handgun to kill Curtis, Kocab and Anderson. They say that fingerprints link Morris to Wright’s killing.

There has been no announcement as to the prosecution’s decision to pursue (or not pursue) the death penalty. It does seem likely that they will announce that intention with regard to the deaths of Curtis and Kocab, as several aspects of the state’s case (at this point) appear to mirror some of the statutory aggravating factors which might support the imposition of the death penalty. Prosecutors have 45 days from the date of an indictment to make that decision.

A regional public defenders office will represent Morris in all four cases. Stephen Fisher, head of the homicide division for the Criminal Conflict Counsel office for the Second District of Florida,  is assembling a team of three lawyers to represent Morris.

Normally, the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office would handle a local indigent defendant. The local office, however, had a conflict of interest because it had already consulted with the driver of the car which was pulled over by Curtis at the beginning of the month. She faces federal criminal charges relating to the killings.