Lawyer: Dad doesn't deny tossing toddler in creek

FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — The lawyer for a man charged with killing his 2-year-old daughter by tossing her into a creek while still strapped into her car seat said today that the real question for the jury is not whether he did it but whether he was thinking clearly that night.

Arthur Morgan III of Eatontown is accused of weighing down the seat with a tire-changing jack so it would sink. He is charged with killing his daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover, in what prosecutors claim was a premeditated, jealous rage because the child's mother would not get back together with him.

Her body was found partially submerged in a creek at a Jersey shore park on Nov. 22, 2011, one tiny black and purple sneaker sticking out of the water.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Ryan Moriarty told the jurors their task is to decide "what form of homicide applies to this defendant."

"We're not asking you to presume Arthur Morgan innocent of responsibility," he told the jury. "It is our contention that he did not act knowingly and purposefully on that day but rather recklessly. Can your ability to think clearly be affected by lack of sleep, losing your job, staying in your car? By homelessness, by the end of a major relationship in your life?"