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Lawyers for murder suspect Barry Morphew are again asking a Colorado judge to drop his case, citing falsehoods from prosecutors and law enforcement, according to reports.
Morphew was arrested in May 2021 and is charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body, and other crimes in connection to the presumed death of Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared on Mother’s Day 2020. Her body has not been found, and Morphew has maintained his innocence.
His attorneys argue in a March 9 motion to dismiss, however, that “substantial evidence” shows “law enforcement testified falsely,” and “the prosecutor presented this false testimony,” the motion obtained by FOX 21 Colorado Springs states.
Barry Morphew
(Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office)
“He asks the court to dismiss this case because a fair trial cannot be held under the circumstances of these falsehoods and coverups,” his lawyers wrote.
The defense team alleges that the prosecution falsified reasons for Barry Morphew’s arrest, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s support for his arrest, justification for the removal of CBI Agent Joseph Cahill, as well as court pleadings.
BARRY MORPHEW ‘HUNTED AND CONTROLLED’ WIFE SUZANNE MORPHEW LIKE AN ANIMAL, INVESTIGATORS SAY
The motion accuses 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley of being “responsible for the presentation of false and misleading testimony,” saying she personally worked to remove Cahill, the primary investigator in the defendant’s case, “because he would not testify…according to her script” regarding three Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) matches linking DNA found of the glove box of Suzanne Morphew’s car to individuals other than Barry Morphew.
Barry Morphew previously said investigators were trying to blame him for the May 10 disappearance of his wife, Suzanne.
(Courtesy of Suzanne Morphew’s Family)
Morphew’s lawyers filed another motion to dismiss earlier this month, claiming a fourth CODIS match linked to the DNA found in Suzanne Morphew’s vehicle, according to FOX 21.
The sample came through a database as a partial match for “single or multiple individuals across the country involved in sexual assault cases,” defense attorneys wrote in an August letter. They said the sample belongs to a sex offender living in Arizona.
The prosecution knew about the DNA results long before they informed the defense, Morphew’s lawyers argued in previous court documents.
In this still image from video, Barry Morphew, center, appears in court in Salida, Colorado, on May 6.
(KUSA via AP, Pool)
Investigators say Suzanne Morphew had plans to leave her husband and told him as much in a text she sent days before she disappeared in 2020, according to an affidavit.
The affidavit also states that Barry Morphew refused to take a polygraph in the days after his wife vanished.
Morphew was released from the Chaffee County jail in September on a $500,000 bond. In October 2021, a judge ruled that he could live in an Airbnb rental home in the same neighborhood where he and his wife once resided, despite issues with his GPS monitoring reception in the area. He can continue living there as long as he reports to a nearby town so his GPS data can be downloaded.
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Defense attorneys have repeatedly complained of not receiving discovery from the prosecution in a timely manner. The defense has also previously suggested that they might sue prosecutors and law enforcement for malicious prosecution and false arrest.
The suspect is expected in court to begin his trial at the end of May.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
