PROVO — With two gunshots fired on a Monday evening in October, Keith Morton shattered the lives of dozens of innocent people.
Morton wept Thursday morning in 4th District Court as he apologized to the family of his girlfriend, Tonja Nash, whom he fatally shot in the back as she ran out of their Orem home on 1183 W. 680 North.
"Not a day goes by that I don't grieve over what I've done," Morton said as he stood in handcuffs, flanked by his two court-appointed attorneys.
Morton's voice shook as he turned to thank his family, seated on the first two rows, for their support. He asked them to keep writing him letters as he serves his sentence of 20 years to life in the Utah State Prison.
Morton had already pleaded guilty to a capital charge of aggravated murder. His sentence allows the possibility of parole.
"This is a sad day," Judge James Taylor said. "The only three options are the death penalty, life without parole or 20 (years) to life with the possibility of parole. This is a heinous crime ... terrible to everyone involved."
Attorneys previously had reached an agreement that if Morton pleaded guilty, the state would not push for the death penalty. Daniel Nash, Tonja's ex-husband, said that was also his family's thought.
"The fact that the accused has children and family dismissed any desire on our part to seek the death penalty," Daniel Nash wrote in a statement that was read by state prosecutor Donna Kelly.
Daniel Nash and his wife, Robin — along with Danielle, 15; Dakota, 12; and Ryan, 9 — didn't feel they could make the trip from Arizona for emotional and practical reasons. But Kelly said she had talked to them about the sentence.
"They're in agreement with it and understand it's ultimately up to the Parole Board to determine if and when Mr. Morton will ever be released," Kelly said.
Morton's mother, sisters, brother, ex-wife and children filled the benches in the courtroom, wiping at their eyes and sniffling as they listened to his apologies.
They too grieve for Nash and her family, especially the two boys who witnessed the shooting. They also grieve for Morton and how difficult it will be for him in prison.
After the hearing, Morton's mother, Faye Cassingham, tearfully described the last few months as a "nightmare." It's the hardest thing their family ever been through, she said.
Morton had been taking bipolar medication and Lortab for back pain and was not himself, his family said. They believe that overmedication seems the only explanation for why Morton would lash out and hurt someone.
"It came completely out of left field," said Morton's ex-wife, Dorothy Morton. She said in their 26 years of marriage, Morton was never violent.
To add to the pain of Nash's death and Morton's incarceration, there are no state resources available to help Morton's family.
The state has victim-assistance programs to provide help for the families of the primary victims, but secondary victims — like Dorothy Morton, Cassingham and Morton's brothers and sisters, as well as Morton's two children, Amber, 20, and Tyler, 18 — are on their own.
In a statement Morton wrote to the media, he said that had he been in his normal state, the shooting would have never happened.
"I don't think I'm a bad person," he wrote in the statement. "If I could go back in time, I wish Tonja could still be here instead of me."
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