Convicted rapist who fled court gets 15-18 years in prison

A Framingham man who fled a Cambridge courthouse two years ago before a jury convicted him of raping a 13-year-old girl was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in state prison after the victim's mother described the fear her family lived with while the man was a fugitive.

Marlon Morris was on trial in Middlesex Superior Court in October 2004 and free on $5,000 bail when he fled to New York, prosecutors said. Twenty minutes after he left the courthouse, the jury convicted him on multiple charges, including rape of a child with force.

Morris was captured Aug. 9 near New Orleans working on post-Hurricane Katrina construction, his lawyer, Philip A. Tracy Jr., said yesterday.

The girl's mother told Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Donovan in court yesterday that Morris's decision to flee intensified the suffering her daughter and family had endured as a result of the November 2002 sexual assault and the subsequent trial.

``She was living in fear," the woman said of her daughter. ``Knowing he was out there was a nightmare."

In a written victim impact statement submitted to Donovan, the girl, now 17, said Morris ``destroyed my life. . . . What Marlon did to me will never go away. . . . My pain will go on after today."

The Globe does not publish the names of victims of sex crimes without their permission. The family asked that their names not be published.

Also delivering victim impact statements were the girl's father and older sister, who said the assault has forever changed her sibling.

``My sister is going to be serving the sentence he put up on her for the rest of her life," the sister said. ``He wasn't here for the conviction, he wasn't here to have justice served, and I think that amplifies the crime."

The girl's father told the judge that he was serving in Iraq when the trial against Morris started. He said he had to mentally banish all thoughts about his daughter -- and the trauma she underwent by testifying against Morris -- in order to stay alive.

``What he did to my daughter flies in the face of everything that is moral and right," said the father, who called Morris a coward.

Morris addressed the judge, the victim, and her family, saying he was an honest, hard-working immigrant from Jamaica who has stayed out of trouble.

``I am sorry for what happened," he said. ``All my life I always tried to do good. . . . It is so hard to see my life go away like this."

Morris, 30, had no criminal record before being charged with sexually assaulting the girl in a Framingham apartment. The two knew each other and were with a mutual friend when the assault occurred, according to Middlesex prosecutors.

Donovan, who noted from the bench that her sentence was not based on Morris's flight, sentenced him to serve 15 to 18 years imprisonment for two counts of rape of a child with force and statutory rape, to be served concurrently. Once released, Morris will be on probation for seven years and must register as a sex offender.

The victim's father said the family was satisfied with Donovan's decision. ``We are gratified that they were able to catch him," he said. ``We feel justice has been served."