In an emotional hearing Thursday, the mother of slain Chicago police Officer Ella French faced the man charged in her daughter’s killing and said she is not ready to forgive him.
“My faith tells me to forgive, I’m not ready for that yet,” Elizabeth French said after turning toward 25-year-old Eric Morgan, who pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and obstruction of justice.
But she said, “I have hope ... that you will come to learn and understand how precious life is.”
Cook County Judge Ursula Walowski sentenced Morgan to seven years in prison — the maximum allowed by law — under the terms of a deal offered by prosecutors last week.
“Frankly, I don’t think seven years is long enough,” Elizabeth French said of the sentence.
The courtroom was filled with police officers and supporters, some who shook and sobbed as French recounted her last conversation with her daughter just before her shift began on Aug. 7, 2021.
“I told her to be careful, I told her to be safe and I told her I loved her,” the mother said. “I will be forever grateful I got that last chance to tell her I loved her.”
Officer French was on patrol around 9 p.m. that night when she and Officers Carlos Yanez and Joshua Blas stopped a gray Honda CRV in West Englewood. Eric Morgan was driving and, in the back seat, Emonte Morgan was allegedly in possession of a handgun they had bought through an Indiana straw purchaser.
After ordering the two brothers out of the car, Eric Morgan ran and was pursued by Blas. The officer was taking him into custody when shots were fired, prosecutors said.
Emonte Morgan had been holding a drink and a cellphone in his hands and allegedly ignored repeated instructions by French and Yanez to set them down, prosecutors said. The two officers struggled with Emonte Morgan, who drew a gun from his waistband and fired, striking both officers, according to prosecutors.
Blas returned and exchanged fire with Emonte Morgan, striking him, prosecutors said. Emonte was able to flee, allegedly handing off the gun to Eric Morgan, before collapsing on the street.
A neighborhood resident helped hold Eric Morgan in a backyard for police and was struck by Eric Morgan with the gun, leading to the battery charge.
French was lauded as a heroand praised by fellow officers as representing the best of the police department.
Hundreds of Chicago police officers and other law enforcement officers gather outside St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel during the funeral for Officer Ella French, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. French was fatally shot and her partner was critically wounded while in the line of duty on Aug. 7 in West Englewood.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times (file)
“I wish I could take back that night, but you can’t take back time,” Morgan said during the hearing, though he added that he believed his brother was innocent of the charges.
Emonte Morgan, charged with first-degree murder, is expected to go to trial early next year, court records show.
Following the hearing, Eric Morgan’s attorney, Richard Brown, said his client had been ready to put the case behind him by taking the plea agreement, despite the fact that the sentence could have been no worse if he had been found guilty of all counts by a jury — never a certainty at trial.
Brown noted that given how long defendants can wait for trial in Cook County, Eric Morgan might be out earlier if he begins serving his sentence now.
In addition to getting credit for the more than two years he has been in custody at the Cook County Jail, Eric Morgan’s convictions are eligible for day-for-day credit, effectively reducing his sentence by half.
Police union president calls for repeal of SAFE-T Act
Following the hearing, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara called on lawmakers to repeal the SAFE-T Act, a landmark criminal justice reform bill signed into law two years ago.
Catanzara claimed Eric Morgan may have faced a potential life sentence if he had been charged with felony murder. The SAFE-T Act narrowed who can be so charged, requiring that a person played a direct role in a death while involved in a felony.
But even before the SAFE-T Act, prosecutors would have faced a high bar of proving that Eric Morgan, who had fled the scene by the time the shooting happened, was involved in an underlying felony because all the charges he faced were related to actions that occurred after the shots were fired.
Catanzara has frequently called for the repeal of the SAFE-T Act, including its most well-known provision that eliminated cash bail in Illinois.
