Suspect allegedly admits to battery and strangulation after using meth for two days

After a woman fled her home with her children, she called police to report a domestic battery. The suspect was detained and allegedly admitted to the accusations. He also admitted he’d been using meth for two days.

Derek Levi Morgan

Derek Levi Morgan, 26, was arrested by Sgt. Logan Hobbs of the Linton Police Department last Sunday afternoon, November 11. The jail record and court records show Morgan with a home address in Oakland City, but he may have been living in Linton at the time of the incident.

Sgt. Hobbs was dispatched around 2:30 p.m. to a home on A Street SE in Linton about a domestic battery. The alleged victim had just fled the home with two very young children and had gone to a neighbor’s house. Morgan was the suspect, still in the residence, possibly armed with a gun.

Hobbs set up security around the perimeter of the house and began calling for Morgan to exit. About 20 minutes later, Morgan came outside and was detained without incident.

Hobbs said when he talked to the alleged victim, she told him she had been battered by Morgan since the evening before until she was able to get away and call police. She said Morgan was angry at her and accused her of cheating on him.

Hobbs said the woman told him she’d been punched several times in the face, struck in the leg with his foot and strangled several times to the point where she was going to pass out. She said children were present when these incidents happened.

She also alleged that Morgan had held a kitchen knife to her throat and said he would kill her before he went to the garage saying he was going to get a gun. When he went to the garage, she fled the house.

Hobbs reported he observed injuries to the woman’s left eye and the inside of her lip, an injury to her thigh and red marks on her throat.

When Hobbs interviewed Morgan at the police department, he waived his rights in order to make a verbal statement. He allegedly admitted the two had been in an argument that turned physical when he hit her. He also said he used his hands to choke her and he’d used his foot to strike her leg.

Morgan denied threatening the woman with a knife and he said the children were in another room when these things happened.

According to Sgt. Hobbs, Morgan also admitted he had a drug problem and that he’d been using methamphetamine for the two days leading up to the incident.

Morgan was booked in to the Greene County Jail where his bond was set at $18,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. He appeared in Greene Superior Court today, Thursday, November 15, for an initial hearing.

Morgan has been charged with:

• Intimidation where defendant draws or uses a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony,

• Strangulation, a Level 6 felony, and

• Domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years of age, a Level 6 felony.