A married man who killed his secret boyfriend before wrapping his body in trash bags and leaving it in the closet of their Atlanta apartment will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
William Morgan, 37, killed 43-year-old Brian Campbell in October 2016 because he feared Campbell would leave him, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday in a news release announcing Morgan’s conviction.
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Prosecutors said Morgan met Campbell — who was also married — at an Atlanta club in 2015. Though both men had wives, the two became intimately involved and eventually moved in together.
Campbell’s family lived in Delaware, but his job required him to be in Atlanta, authorities said. Morgan, who was addicted to methamphetamine, became financially reliant on his partner and stole Campbell’s Land Rover, guns and high-end watches just a month before shooting him twice in the head.
“Morgan’s drug addiction, his reliance on Campbell, and the overall complications caused by the fact that both men were married and engaged in a secret romance, led Campbell to consider ending the relationship with Morgan,” said Chris Hopper, spokesman for the Fulton County DA’s Office.
Aware of Campbell’s intentions to leave him, prosecutors said Morgan shot and killed his boyfriend on Oct. 1, 2016, after the two spent the day with friends at a Braselton race track.
He then wrapped Campbell’s body in plastic and stashed it in a bedroom closet, authorities said. On his way out, he lowered the temperature in the apartment to 45 degrees and lit a scented candle, according to prosecutors. Morgan also stole Campbell’s watches, cellphone, handgun, iPad and wallet, officials said.
Campbell’s body wasn’t discovered until four days later, when his wife grew worried that he wasn’t returning her calls or messages and filed a missing persons report with Atlanta police. His abandoned vehicle was discovered a day earlier in Jacksonville, Alabama, prosecutors said.
Morgan was arrested on Oct. 18 after a standoff with law enforcement at a Jacksonville home. He admitted living with Campbell and stealing his belongings, but denied killing his boyfriend, prosecutors said.
He was recently convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, theft by taking, financial transaction card theft, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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