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which began Fob. 20.Charged With Murder, ArsonBy ALBERT DARBY News Staff WriterCharles W. Marks, a former resident who now is confined in the Frederick County Jail at Winchester, Va . testified in Allegany County Circuit Court yesterday that Mrs. Cynthia Diane Morrissey, 30, of Cumberland, had asked him to help her to get rid of her former husband.Mrs. Morrissey is being tried by Chief Judge James S. Getty on charges of murder and arson. Her former husband, Michael Kenneth Morrissey, also 30, and their six-year-old son, Matthew Joseph, died in a fire which gutted their Leiper Street residence about 2 a.m last May 28.Marks testified he thought Mrs. Morrissey was either “crazy or joking” but she did have a similar conversation with him on at least one other occasion. He said she explained that Morrissey would beat her and when she would have him arrested he would be released in a short time.“It was perfectly understandable to me why she wanted to get rid of him,” Marks concluded.The 16th and last witness called yesterday by State’s Attorney Lawrence V. Kelly was another prisoner, Allen Raymond Knibiehly, formerly of Independence Street, who now' is confined in the Maryland Correctional Training Center. When Kelly asked Knibiehly whether he had conversed with Mrs. Morrissey about her ex-husband, he pleaded thefifth amendment involvingself-incrimination. When Kelly assured the prisoner he planned no prosecution against him, Knibiehly explained he feared retribution that might be taken against him at the correctional institution.Judge Getty then recessed the trial about 4:40 p.m. until 9:15 a m today after appointing Thomas N. Berry, an attorney who was in the courtroom, torepresent Knibiehly. JudgeGetty said he would decide this morning on whether the prisoner should be required to testify.Of the 14 other witnesses called yesterday by Kelly, six were neighbors of the Morrisseys, six were firemen, one policeman and an insurance agent.The neighbors included Linda R Starkey, Ann W Combs, Gregory D Combs, her husband; Ray Izzett, Willis Rice and Mrs. Carolyn Rice, his wifeIzzett said that he had known the Morriseys since1977 or 1978 when they moved into the Leiper StreetSuit FiledIn DrowningAt Rocky GanThe parents of a Flint-stone boy who drowned in June 1980 in the lake at Rocky Gap State Park have filed suit in Allegany County Circuit Court against the State Department of Natural Resources, the park superintendent and assistant park superintendent and four life guards, who reportedly were onxluty at the time.The suit was filed by Daniel C. Vance andCatherine L. Vance, RD 2, Flintstone. Their son, Timothy Adam Vance, who was 15 at the time, reportedly drowned while swimming in the lake at Rocky Gap June 13,1980.The suit contends it took 15 minutes to get the boy’s body out of the lake and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at Memorial Hospital. Listed as defendants in the suit besides the Department of Natural Resources are Harold Riley, superintendent; William Cihlar, assistant superintendent; Michael Firlie, Timothy Naugle, Stephen Blake and Leslie Eisen-berger, listed as lifeguards at the time.He “disi that justi comj vestc in ecin Myeargranabouhike;neighborhood He said they would argue at least once or twice every week and he could hear Mrs. Morrissey hollering. At first he would respond when he heard her call out but when the incidents continued he eventually decided to ignore it.Mrs. Rice, who kept Meredith Morrissey, the four-year-old daughter overnight after she escaped from the fire uninjured, said she was awakened by her own daughter when the fire occurred. She said when she got outside, she saw Meredith in the yard andMrs. Morrissey on the roofoutside the bedroom window which led to where the son had been sleeping.Cpl. Thomas Elliott of City Police, said he responded to the fire when he heard the message on his scanner and arrived before the firemen He said he discovered Mrs. Morrissey about 100 feet down the street in a kneeling or sitting position.She was hysterical and kept saying that her son was still in the house, Cpl. Elliott testified. But he said she made no comment about her former husband also being in the house.Six men who were city firemen at the time of the fatal blaze also testified. They included Capt. Raymond McKinley, Lt. Calvin Witt, who has since retired; Phillip Knotts, John Herath, who now works for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department; Charles Wolford and Alex Gross. Gross said he was theperson who found Morrissey’s body in the television room on the first floor of the house. A piece of ceiling tile was lying on him.Gross and several other witnesses testified that Mrs. Morrissey had severe burns of her hands, her hair had been singed and her back burned.Kelly is being assisted in the prosecution of the case by R. Steven Friend, ansamlt;“Ahardsuchat meThCPThemillihikecordHastThreqiAugiincncoveinteirepl,Thothin]((OiEm of tl inkillimurforthehusl T! malt; Phil E. F Stat CouSiMylt;vobandimrherandCbeii29,RuRoltirrcheMrtheCh,tarFcorthiarrlt; Continued On Page 24)
Newspaper Details
Cumberland News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Thu, Mar 25, 1982
Page 43
Full Page
Clipped by
Julie W.
USA 14 Jun 2020
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