by Robert Scott
At that point, Judge Stone chimed in and said, “I want to be sure I understand that. When did you first hear that story from him?”
Jesse replied, “I can’t give you a specific date, but I’m sure it was after Utah and Idaho. It must have been in the Oregon time frame. Although it might have been when he was getting divorced from Jessica.”
Fahy continued, “You have concerns for Gabe as your brother, but have you told this court anything except the absolute truth?”
“No.”
“In other words, are you going to kind of fudge things to help your brother?”
Frasier objected, saying, “Your Honor, that is kind of [a] self-serving question.”
Judge Stone sustained the objection.
Fahy tried again. “Well, is your love and lifetime attempts to help your brother clouding your ability to tell us exactly what happened?”
“Absolutely not.”
“The stories he told you while he was in Las Vegas about stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, was there any evidence of that?”
Jesse said there was not.
“When you were on the phone to Gabe, you alluded to other issues. What issues were those?”
Jesse responded, “Sexual abuse from Danny and how mom and I didn’t protect him. Some pretty graphic stuff.”
Fahy wanted to know if Jesse ever got the idea that Gabe no longer loved his mother or was disappointed in her. Jesse said that Gabe was all over the place. And as far as Gabe becoming increasingly paranoid, Jesse testified that he absolutely was.
Fahy then asked if in the phone calls of the last few weeks before the shootings if Gabe was making any sense at all.
Jesse said that Gabe was not. “He just rambled on and on and changed topics very quickly.”
Fahy wondered, “Was there any underlying fear and anxiety?”
Jesse answered, “Yes. It seemed very urgent.”
At that point, Judge Stone spoke up and said, “Clarify one thing for me. You lived with him in Provo, Utah, from when to when?”
Jesse replied, “It would have been early 2002 to that later part of 2003 or early 2004.”
“And your testimony is that he was not using marijuana in the home?”
“At the end, he was. The last few months that we lived there.”
“And that was outside the presence of Jessica?”
Jesse answered, “As far as I know, yes.”
CHAPTER 41
Witness David Grover was called to the stand to explain about what Gabe was like when he worked at Grover’s restaurant the Kozy Kitchen in North Bend. Grover spoke of when Gabe had been an employee and what an exceptional young man he had been. Grover also spoke of Gabe’s visit to him in early 2010 and how odd it was. Asked about how he felt when he heard about the double homicide, Grover replied, “I was absolutely shocked. It wasn’t the Gabe I knew. It was beyond belief that it could happen.”
On cross, Frasier wanted to know if Gabe had ever tended bar for him. Grover responded that he didn’t think that Gabe had done so. And asked if Gabe drank alcohol, Grover said that he did not.
Frasier then asked why Gabe had come to see him in 2010. Grover replied, “I’m not really sure why he came to see me. He might just have been in town and wanted to say ‘hi.’”
“So it was during this conversation that out of the blue he said that if you had any trouble, he could arrange someone to take care of it for you?”
“He said he could come in and pretend to be a dishwasher and he would help me deal with any problems I had.”
Frasier asked if Gabe had told Grover that he was an investigator with the military.
Grover replied, “He said that he had been in the military and was now out. And he said he was in a small group of people who were doing their own missions. Something about a special operations team. He said while in the military, he had been given missions and had excelled at them. They just kept giving him more and more to do.”
As far as the stories went in 2010, Grover said that they were convincing and he didn’t see any holes in them. Grover believed them because Gabe had been so honest in the past.
Frasier asked if Gabe had said something about going to Seattle.
Grover answered, “He said, ‘Why don’t you give me your number. I have to go to Seattle now. When I get back, maybe we can get together and go out and have a glass of wine.’”
Since Gabe had adhered to strict Mormon principles about not drinking alcohol when he worked for Grover, Frasier asked, “Did that strike you as strange?”
Grover said, “Not necessarily. He didn’t drink before, but he was an adult now. The Gabe I knew was a very friendly person, and I took it as a nice gesture. Besides, I didn’t know if he was still in the Mormon Church.”
Frasier wondered if Grover thought Gabe was hallucinating at any time.
“Not hallucinating, but he was quieter than when I knew him before. He started out by being very friendly and cheerful, but then he got real quiet and serious.”
“Did you see anything to make you think he was delusional?”
Grover responded that he didn’t, but that he didn’t understand Gabe’s stories very well.
Frasier wanted to know if Grover thought that Gabe might be dangerous to people around him. Grover thought the comment from Gabe about taking care of people who might be giving him problems was odd. However, Grover never thought Gabe might be dangerous to Bob Kennelly or to his mother, Robin Anstey.
As far as the comment about Gabe might be dangerous to someone at Grover’s restaurant, Frasier asked if Grover ever called the police about this.
Grover answered, “No, I mean I really didn’t get into depth with him about this because the restaurant was busy. I talked to him about six minutes total. I took it [that] he might be going out and doing spy work. I just listened to him and took what he said for what it was. I mean, if someone was stealing from me, he might just come in as a dishwasher and watch. There wasn’t anything about violence.”
“So you didn’t call anyone and say, ‘Hey, you need to be careful around this guy’?”
Grover said that he had not done so.
“You asked him about his parents and he said what?”
“He said he didn’t see them anymore. They were bad people.”
“Did he tell you he was actually living with them at the time?”
Grover said that Gabe did not mention that.
“Did you have any reason to believe the defendant had been living in Coos County since September of the year before?”
Grover said no.
Fahy wanted to question Grover some more, and he said, “When counsel asked you if he was hallucinating, you kind of paused. There was an answer like ‘No, but...’ Can you explain that?”
Grover answered as many others had: “It just wasn’t the Gabe I knew.”
“You said that you didn’t understand his story. Was he making sense to you?”
“It was hard to follow. It was disjointed.”
Sandra Johns, the other restaurateur whom Gabe worked for, was next. She said she knew Gabe when she was a manager at the Rip Tide restaurant in Bandon. Sandra related that he was always pleasant, upbeat and cared about his customers. She added that when his mom and James Anstey came into the restaurant, Gabe always gave her a big hug.
When she first heard about the murders, Sandra said, “I was shocked. I didn’t think it was the Gabe I knew. I looked it up on the Internet to see if the person mentioned had worked for us. I couldn’t believe that it was the same person. It was completely out of character.”
As with other witnesses, Frasier got Sandra to admit that she hadn’t seen Gabe for years and had no idea what he’d been up to or what his lifestyle was like in those intervening years.
Frasier asked, “So you have no idea how he came to be in a position for which he finds himself today?”
“None at all.”
Sandra Johns was not on the stand very long. She was followed by Isabelle A
nstey Hayden. Isabelle was Gabe’s stepsister and she spoke of how he had been so good to her when they were young. She repeated what she had said before, “He was the brother I never had.”
She also recounted how much he had changed by 2009 and it was especially evident during the spaghetti dinner, where he had acted in such a strange manner.
During cross-examination, DA Frasier pointed out the remark about Gabe being crazy and asked if she had sought any mental-health counselors for him. Isabelle replied that she had not. Asked if she thought he was a danger to those around him, she said no. And when Frasier wanted to know if she had called any police agency or mental-health facility, she also said no.
Frasier asked if she knew Gabe had quit the ROTC, quit the sheriff’s office in Idaho and wanted a divorce from Jessica at one point. Isabelle said that she did know all of those things. She even knew that he had moved in with another woman in Idaho and also spent time in Las Vegas, where he told others he had made money by gambling.
Frasier asked if she knew that when Gabe, Jessica and Kalea moved into Bob Kennelly’s home in Oregon that Gabe was having financial problems. She answered that she didn’t know that.
Frasier asked, “Do you know why they were staying with Robin and Robert?”
Isabelle replied, “I was under the impression there weren’t any problems with them.”
“Did the defendant ever tell you that he thought Robert Kennelly was poisoning his family?”
Isabelle said that he had not done so. Nor did he tell her anything about Robert Kennelly supposedly getting ready to abuse Kalea sexually.
Isabelle’s answers were all “no” to questions of whether Gabe had spoken of abandonment issues when he was young, spoken of Robert and Robin being “bad people” and if she knew what Gabe’s mental state was in the two weeks from when she last saw him in January 2010 and up to the time of the murders.
Frasier then asked, “Is it true you do not want to see him go to prison?”
Isabelle began crying. Through her tears, she answered, “I would like to see him get help.”
“What do you mean by him ‘getting help’? There are two people dead here.”
“I very much understand that.”
“I will ask again, do you want to see him in prison?”
Isabelle cried, “I don’t know!”
On a short redirect, Fahy asked if she loved Robin and was angry at Gabe for what he did. Isabelle replied, “Yes, I was very upset.”
“Is it safe to say you have mixed emotions about this whole thing?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Does it feel like you have suffered a double loss?”
“Definitely.”
CHAPTER 42
Isabelle’s husband, Robert Hayden, followed her on the stand. He spoke of liking Gabe when he first met him and what a great guy he had been. And then Robert noticed a huge change in Gabe during the latter part of 2009 and early 2010.
DA Frasier wanted to know if Gabe had ever told Robert that he had borrowed $25,000 from Bob Kennelly. Hayden said that Gabe did indicate that had occurred. Hayden added, “He was going to pay down some debts.”
Frasier asked if Gabe had also talked about paying off someone who had shot a friend of his and that shooter was looking for him. Hayden agreed that conversation had occurred as well.
Hayden also testified that Gabe had told him that there were bad people looking for him in the Bandon area and some of them were looking for him because of a supposed murder in Las Vegas. Gabe was not very specific about this alleged murder. Gabe had also spoken about having two Beretta handguns to protect himself.
Hayden even testified, “During the spaghetti dinner, Gabe was losing control. I asked him if he ever worried about getting into trouble about these things he was talking about. He said that if he ever got into a situation with the police, he would not back down. He said, ‘When they are firing their guns at me and have to reload, I have thirty-five round clips in my guns and won’t have to reload.’”
Asked about what types of vehicles Gabe had been driving in December 2009 and January 2010, Hayden said that Gabe used a Mercedes E-Class sedan, a Prius, a small red pickup truck and Bob Kennelly’s pickup truck.
Frasier wanted to know if Robert and his wife, Isabelle, were ever frightened for their safety around Gabe. Robert answered that they were. “I told my wife that I didn’t want Gabe coming over anymore.”
“Did you think about calling the police?”
“No, it was more of a family thing. It was the ranting about religion, and him trying to make us join him in something, that scared us. His mind was going a hundred miles an hour on this stuff.”
Frasier noted that Robert and his wife were friendly with Robin Anstey. He asked if they ever worried for her safety around Gabe. Hayden said that they did not, nor were they worried about the safety of Bob Kennelly.
Even though Robert believed that Gabe had mental issues, he testified that neither he nor his wife sought a mental counselor to see Gabe.
Frasier wanted to know why Robert believed Gabe’s stories about being in the military.
Robert replied, “Because when I first met him, he seemed so calm, cool and relaxed. He’d been a police officer, and his mom had nothing but good things to say about him. I generally thought he was a great guy.”
“So you had no reason to disbelieve he was telling you the truth?”
“Correct. But when he started telling me stories about the black ops, I thought some might be fabrications. And stuff like if I wanted one hundred twenty thousand dollars, I could get it in one day. Stuff like that, and things like getting orders for missions by a phone call.”
On redirect, Fahy asked if there was any evidence that there had ever been a murder in Las Vegas. Hayden agreed there was no corroborating evidence. And as far as the $25,000 Gabe had borrowed from Robert Kennelly, Hayden said that he wasn’t “going to stiff him. He was going to pay it back.”
Fahy asked, “Was it obvious to you that you were watching someone having a mental crisis?”
Hayden answered, “In my opinion, yes.”
Fahy brought Coos County deputy sheriff Richard Gill to the stand to testify as to what kind of inmate Gabe had been since he’d been incarcerated. This was important. When Judge Stone pronounced the sentence, he would have to factor in the “future dangerousness” of Gabriel Morris.
Deputy Gill said that Gabe had no discipline problems in the year and a half since he’d been in the Coos County Jail. Gill agreed with Fahy that sometimes he came into contact with antisocial individuals who were inmates. Gill agreed that as far as he knew, Gabe had never tried to manipulate him or other inmates. In fact, Gabe had been helpful to other inmates.
Gill said, “There was a young man incarcerated in the same cell block as Mr. Morris. This young man spoke very little English. He was an eighteen-year-old Hispanic man. Mr. Morris does speak some Spanish, and he would have conversations with the young man when they played cards. Mr. Morris’s influence helped the young man to calm down. It made him adjust to jail life better. Mr. Morris kind of took him under his wing.”
Fahy wanted to know if Gabe had ever referred to himself as a prophet.
Gill responded, “No. He has never referred to himself as something special. He had drawn parallels to himself and other scriptural characters who were incarcerated. But that’s all.”
Fahy asked what Gill thought of Gabe’s personality.
Gill replied, “If we had met under different circumstances, he probably would have been a close friend.”
Frasier was skeptical about how well Gabe had adjusted to jail life. The DA said, “In fact, he’s had issues with some inmates in jail, hasn’t he?”
Gill answered, “In one of the kites [messages in jail], he gave us information about some other inmates who have been less than social to other inmates in the cell block. He complained particularly about one inmate.”
Frasier asked if Gabe had been threatened by this p
erson, and Gill said that he had been. Frasier wondered if Gabe had responded in a physical manner to this, and Gill said that he had not done so.
Frasier wanted to know if Gabe was receiving any medication while in jail. Gill responded that he wasn’t aware of any. Nor was he aware of Gabe receiving any mental-health counseling.
On redirect, Fahy had Deputy Gill explain more about the “kites” Gabe had sent to the officers in the jail. Gill said, “The kites he sent, they were about these inmates acting out.”
“Would you consider that to be snitching?”
Gill said, “I wouldn’t try to get into his mind as to what his motivation was. I do know that the inmates he informed us about do have a reputation as being aggressive and antisocial toward everybody—inmates and staff.”
“Has Mr. Morris asked for personal protection?”
“I have seen him working out in his cell. He is physically fit. I believe that he is more than capable of taking care of himself.”
“Have you ever seen him speaking gibberish or acting crazy or delusional?”
“Never.”
“He seemed to be pretty stable in the structured environment of jail?”
“Yes, sir.”
CHAPTER 43
The Eschlers were, of course, important witnesses in the case. They had been visited by Gabriel Morris less than an hour after the murders had taken place. Fred Eschler recounted that Gabe had been his daughter’s boyfriend. He had liked Gabe so much as a young man that he considered him to be a part of the family. Gabe went on camping trips with the whole family and dropped by, even when Esther Eschler was not home.
Fred recalled about the night of February 8, 2010: “There was a knock at the door at around nine. I was in the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table. My wife and I were there talking. She went and answered the door, and I could tell by her greeting that it was someone she was excited to see.