A Utah man who previously avoided prosecution for the death of his girlfriend is now facing homicide charges for the alleged crime.
Morgan Kay Harris, 27, died on February 18, 2023, in a fire while trapped inside the storage unit she and her boyfriend shared with her dog, Huck.
In May 2024, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill all but exonerated the boyfriend, Alexander Paul Wardell, 33, saying a lengthy investigation found no evidence that he started the fire.
On Thursday, the Beehive State’s top law enforcement official took over – and steered the case in the opposite direction. Wardell is now accused of murder or manslaughter, according to the Utah Attorney General’s Office. He is also charged with one count each of kidnapping and aggravated animal cruelty.
The evidence surrounding the timing of the fire was cited as one of the primary reasons the local DA declined to file charges.
“The testing showed the fire was most likely between 6-15 minutes long,” Gill told Salt Lake City-based NBC affiliate KSL. “Wardell was away from the unit for a total of 22 minutes, making it unlikely that Wardell intentionally caused the fire before leaving the unit.”
Gill cited an investigation conducted by multiple agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Gill also dispatched two prosecutors from his own office to perform controlled burns on replicas of the storage unit at the ATF’s Fire Research Lab in Maryland.
The DA’s final report on the fire summed up its findings as follows:
[W]hile other causes could be eliminated from causing the fire that killed Ms. Harris, the following were all possible and could not be eliminated as possible causes: an accidental smoldering fire caused by discarded smoking materials from cigarettes; an accidental fire caused by the use of candles; or while “not likely” an intentional fire set by Mr. Wardell.
Still, questions remained — and backlash ensued — as to why Harris was in the storage unit at the time.
Wardell allegedly admitted to closing the storage unit and then locking the door while walking to a nearby Walmart, knowing the woman and dog were inside, according to Salt Lake City police.
Wardell was arrested shortly after Harris’ death on suspicion of negligent homicide and kidnapping.
Again, Gill responded to his office’s critics. The DA stated that there was no evidence that either inhabitant of those poor quarters did anything other than lock the door when they left. The prosecutor also claimed there was no evidence Harris was held against her will.
“How can I prove she didn’t agree to that? With what evidence do I do this? “Who do I put on the stand?” he said aloud in comments reported by KSL at the time. “We examined all available evidence, including her and his phones, and found no evidence that led us to this conclusion. We scoured, looking for any humanly possible way to articulate those elements for the purpose of filing charges. “We couldn’t get there.”
The initial decision not to indict Wardell was quickly followed by a broader indictment of the Utah justice system. The boyfriend, it turned out, had been convicted of domestic violence twice before. In fact, two days before she died, Harris bailed Wardell out of jail for the second time; he had been arrested for violating his probation on his most recent domestic violence conviction. Wardell is currently serving time for those convictions at the Utah State Correctional Facility, as stated in his indictment.
“The justice system failed before she died in that he was a convicted criminal, convicted and sentenced to five years, which he never served, and was still allowed to even be around another woman,” Harris’s mother said to KSL in May 2024.
However, additional evidentiary barriers prevented the local DA from moving forward. One of the last major questions was the position of Harris’ body. Gill stated that it did not appear she made it to the door during the fire, making the fact that the unit was locked “irrelevant in her manner of death.” In conclusion, the DA stated that it would be “unethical” to indict Wardell based on the evidence he was able to gather.
State investigators came to a different conclusion, largely based on evidence culled from a duffel bag originally obtained by police in Murray, a suburb of Salt Lake City located directly south.
“In it, investigators found an extra-large blue button-down long-sleeve shirt wadded up in the center of other extra-large clothing,” according to the new charging document obtained by KSL. “The shirt appeared to have bloodstains and burn marks on it. A rapid DNA test identified the tested red brown stains as blood, and the DNA in the blood matched (Harris’) DNA.”
The AG’s office also claims to have obtained evidence that the couple had been fighting for several days before the fire.
“The body posture of (Wardell and Harris) supports that (they) were arguing,” according to the new charges, which cite surveillance footage.
Additionally, 10 days prior to the fire, Harris allegedly sent Wardell the following Facebook message: “Guess I’m gonna apply to live by myself at an apartment you won’t know about so you can’t (expletive) abuse or kill me.”
The new prosecutors also claim to have discovered evidence that Wardell was upset about Harris’ spending money and that he “performed Google searches for ‘how to obtain a passport'” in the days leading up to her death.
“The charged death is supported by substantial evidence, which includes evidence provided by multiple witnesses,” according to the fresh allegations.
