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Gene Kennedy ReportingA father who removed his daughter from a suspected meth house will not face charges after all. It's a big victory for this greiving father.
This father feels that our system of justice worked in this case. The sad part is he'll never be able to celebrate with his daughter.
In December, Cole Morrow removed his five-month-old girl, Estella Lacey, from her mother's home in Murray-- a suspected meth house. Morrow got into a fight with the mom's boyfriend in the process, managed to take the girl to his home in Nevada, but later had to give her back.
Then, he was charged with burglary and assaulting the boyfriend.
He gave his daughter back on December 20, and eight days later she died from swallowing a bag of methamphetamine.
All along, Morrow and his lawyer argued the charges against the father were outrageous.
Cole Morrow/Father: "I'm not a criminal. I was just protecting my daughter."
Gregory Hawkins/Hawkins & Sorensen/Last week: "Here's a man who steps up to defend a child, the child is killed, and the state has the gall to charge him with a crime."
The people now charged are the mother, Mary Lacey, and her boyfriend, Raymond Chesley. Investigators say the two never called 911 after the girl ate the drugs or while she violently reacted to the meth.
They are accused of taking her body from the home where she died to another home. They are charged with desecration of a dead body, a third-degree felony, and Chesley also is charged with first-degree felony child endangerment.
He has an arraignment scheduled for today on the endangerment charge. We'll follow that for you and have more on it later today.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
