Champion man charged with robbing grandmother of $81 in cash

Staff report

CHAMPION

Bond was set at $25,000 for Maurice L. Morgan, 25, of Glendola Avenue in the township, charged with breaking into his grandmother’s house at 3:05 a.m. Saturday and robbing her.

Champion police said the 75-year-old grandmother, of Craig Avenue Northwest, said Morgan called his mother that night from a Howland tavern and asked her to give him a ride home.

The grandmother went to sleep in a chair and awoke later to her grandson reaching from behind her and putting his hand down her shirt to take out the money she keeps in her bra.

Morgan didn’t get any money and started punching her in the chest, saying, “Give me the money,” she said.

Then he demanded money from her purse, so she gave him $40, but he wanted more, so she gave him the other $41, and he fled. The grandmother couldn’t use the phone to call 911 because she discovered someone had ripped the phone cord out of the wall, she said. Morgan doesn’t have keys to her house and is not allowed in it, she said.

Morgan’s mother and grandmother said they wanted to press charges because Morgan has a bad drug problem.

Police arrested Morgan the next day and placed him in Trumbull County Jail, charged with aggravated burglary. If convicted, he could get 10 years in prison.

Morgan pleaded not guilty, and Magistrate Dan Gerin ordered Morgan to have no contact with his grandmother if he gets out of jail.