A man accused of fatally throwing his 2-year-old daughter, still strapped in her car seat and tied to a car jack, into a New Jersey creek said he planned for the girl's mother to accompany him the night the little girl died, according to a letter read Thursday at his trial, according to USA Today.
"You should have came with us," Arthur Morgan III wrote in the jailhouse letter to his ex-girlfriend, Imani Benton, USA Today reported. "It would have been so different, I'm sure. That was the plan, to go as a family."
Morgan is on trial in the November 2011 death of the couple's daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover, according to USA Today. The toddler's body was found in a creek in a Jersey shore park about 20 miles from her Lakehurst home, one tiny black and purple sneaker sticking out of the water.
Tierra was still securely strapped into her pink car seat, which was weighed down with a heavy metal car tire jack, which prosecutors said was done to ensure it would sink, USA Today reported.
Benton testified that she believes she, too, would be dead if she had gone along with Morgan on an outing that was supposed to be a father-daughter trip to a movie, according to USA Today.
"If I would have went to the movie, we wouldn't have gone to the movie," she testified, USA Today reported. "We all would have died."
Benton tearfully described to the jury how she learned of the girl's death, hours after her father angrily sped off with their daughter in his car, according to USA Today.
She called police after Morgan was four hours overdue bringing Tierra home, USA Today reported. Eight hours earlier, Benton said, Morgan had berated her, saying she wasn't a good mother and yelling that she was a whore.
Police came and took a report. Hours later, they returned, this time with an FBI agent who asked about a specific item of clothing Tierra was wearing, a pink Hello Kitty hat, according to USA Today.
"I never told police about the hat," she testified, USA Today reported. "When they asked, I knew something was wrong. I started hyperventilating, I had a panic attack and I would end up in the hospital."
Morgan, 29, of Eatontown, is charged with killing his daughter in what prosecutors claim was a premeditated, jealous rage because Benton would not get back together with him, according to USA Today. Benton testified that days before the child's death, she broke up with Morgan for the last time, returning jewelry including an engagement ring to him.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Ryan Moriarty indicated Morgan would not deny responsibility for Tierra's death, according to USA Today. He told the jurors their task is to decide "what form of homicide applies to this defendant."
One of the items the child was wearing when she left with her father that morning was a necklace, Benton testified, USA Today reported. It had a pendant that read, "Daddy's Little Girl."
