Edward Earl Morgan Jr.
HANCOCK COUNTY — A Greenfield man who broke into a county home will spend at least two years in prison following the acceptance of a plea agreement in Hancock County Circuit Court last week.
Edward Earl Morgan Jr., 34, 300 block of Tague Street, was originally charged with a Level 4 felony count of burglary; a Level 6 felony count of residential entry and a Class A misdemeanor count of attempted to commit theft from an incident in May of 2021.
Judge Scott Sirk handed down the terms of the plea agreement, Thursday, April 13, which were left up to the court to determine. The deal called for Morgan to admit guilt to the Level 4 burglary, a crime that can carry up to 12 years in prison, but called for a six-year cap.
While Morgan and his attorney wanted no time in prison, Sirk told Morgan, “a football coach once said, you are what your record says you are … You went into someone’s home.”
Sirk then sentenced Morgan to the six-year term with two years to be executed at the Indiana Department of Corrections; two years on home detention through Hancock County Community Corrections followed by two years on formal probation.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Morgan broke into a home in the 300 block of South Pennsylvania Street on May 27, 2021. Officers from the Greenfield Police Department arrived in time to see Morgan leaving the residence with a box of items.
One of the homeowners at first told officers Morgan was a friend and they didn’t want him arrested. But after learning Morgan had broken in through a window and gone through several rooms in the home, the victims asked that charges be filed.
Morgan, who was out on bond, was immediately taken into custody and processed at the Hancock County Jail. The other two lesser charges against Morgan were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
