Unable to hold back emotions from a torturous night three years ago, Dr. Paul Hess broke into tears Thursday on the witness stand as he recounted how his girlfriend, Janet Morgan, died in his arms after being shot by masked intruders.
Hess told jurors in the federal robbery and murder trial of Bryan Felix, Remy Augustin and Lestroy Bright that he was awakened early in the morning on Feb. 24, 1997 by the dogs he and Morgan kept at her Estate Belvedere home in the secluded hills of St. Croix’s north shore.
When he stepped outside of the downstairs apartment of the under-construction house, Hess, a veterinarian on St. Croix for 22 years, said he saw three masked men crouched in the darkness. He then saw a bright flash and heard an explosion, and then another bright flash.
"Then I realized I’d been shot," he said.
Bleeding, Hess said he stumbled backward into the apartment and tried to dial 911, but the phone line had been cut. As he kneeled on the floor he tried to dial the emergency number on his cellular phone, but the intruders had by then entered the apartment.
The robbers, Hess said, shouted "give us the money, give us the money, give us the money. I said there was none."
He then remembered some cash in his pants pocket, which Morgan then handed to the robbers.
At that point in his testimony, Hess began to lose control of his emotions. He recounted that he was laying on the floor when he heard three shots and then the assailants fleeing.
"Jan said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been shot. I’m dying.’ I laid her down on the floor and got up and ran outside and screamed ‘Brian, help us,’" Hess said, referring to his next door neighbor, Brian Updyke. "I came back and held on to her and she died."
One of the accused murderers, Lestroy Bright, had visited Morgan’s home on a social occasion and had worked on the upstairs part of the house following damage caused by Hurricane Marilyn, Hess testified. On the night of the murder, however, he never saw the faces of the intruders because they were wearing masks. Prosecutors hope to link hair samples found in the masks and other evidence to the defendants.
For several excruciating minutes, District Court Judge Raymond Finch’s courtroom was silent except for Hess’ sobs. Just a few feet away sat the nine-woman, three-man jury and across the room, Bright, Felix, and Augustin sat expressionless at the defense table, flanked by their attorneys and three U.S. Marshals.
Earlier in the day, neighbor Jill Updyke recalled the evening, saying she heard at least two shots, Morgan scream and then Hess calling for help.
She said that later in the day, she and her husband went back to Morgan’s house to make sure "nothing was left undone" by police investigators.
That’s when she spotted a handgun on the bottom of Morgan’s pool.
"I went by the pool and I just turned around and there was the gun," she said, adding that the reason the couple went back to Morgan’s house was because they didn’t have much confidence in the way the authorities responded to the murder and the subsequent investigation. Updyke said it took at least 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
"We just didn’t have much confidence in the way the thing was run," she said. "You could imagine the frustration. My neighbor just died. We felt we should just check up."
In addition to murder, Bright, Felix and Augustin face more than a dozen other charges stemming from a robbery spree in the weeks leading up to Morgan’s death. Prosecutors accuse the trio of the robbery of the Off the Wall bar; the armed robbery of Chocolate Barbecue in Estate St. John on Feb. 18, 1997; and the armed robbery of Saibaba Gift Shop in Christiansted on Feb. 21, 1997.
The trial resumes in District Court on Friday at 9:30 a.m.