Convicted Modesto rapist convicted of resisting officer on fugitive apprehension team

A convicted rapist who only served half of his six-year sentence now could get a longer stay in prison after a Stanislaus County jury convicted him of a crime he committed while on parole.

Matthew Deante Morgan, 24, of Modesto, was convicted last month of resisting an officer by force, following a two-day jury trial. Morgan twice cut off his ankle monitor and remained a fugitive at large for months before he was finally captured and held without bail on the resisting charge.

During an interview with The Modesto Bee in March, while Morgan remained at large, the rape victim said she was fearful of running into Morgan on the streets and was angry that he got so little time for his attack on her and for repeatedly violating his parole.

In 2014 Morgan pleaded no contest to rape of an unconscious person. Two years prior, when Morgan was 19, he and a juvenile suspect raped a 14-year-old girl during a party. The victim was under the influence of alcohol and possibly a date rape drug, according to prosecutor Annette Rees.

Because the crime is considered a serious, but not violent, offense in California, Morgan was paroled in 2015 after serving only 50 percent of his sentence.

Morgan was paroled to Butte County so he would be kept away from the victim, but within 24 hours of his release he cut off his ankle monitor and returned to Modesto. He was arrested a week later for removing his GPS monitor, absconding from parole supervision and resisting arrest, and was returned to prison on a parole violation.

He was released in October 2015 but again absconded from parole.

Later that month the California Department of Corrections Fugitive Apprehension Team responded to a Modesto apartment building where Morgan was suspected of hiding. When agents approached, Morgan attempted to climb out a window and flee.

Realizing he had been seen, Morgan climbed back inside and barricaded himself in a back bedroom by moving heavy furniture to block entry, according to a Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office news release.

The fugitive team broke through the door, making a hole large enough for a police dog to enter. As the dog’s handler, a Stockton police officer, tried to enter the room, Morgan grabbed him by the uniform shirt and continued to resist. During the struggle a heavy piece of furniture fell and fractured the officer’s foot.

Morgan was returned to prison on the parole violation but was released a few months later, let out early for Christmas. His parole agent wasn’t notified of his release or that Rees wanted him returned to the Stanislaus County jail to answer for charges of resisting arrest against the Stockton officer and failing to register as a sex offender.

Morgan was finally captured in April and has been without bail since.

Morgan pleaded no contest to failing to register as a sex offender on the first day of jury trial last month, so the jury was not aware of much of his criminal history, according to the release.

Morgan was convicted of having a previous conviction of rape, a strike under California’s “three-strikes” law, which can be used to double his prison sentence in this case, and having served a prior prison term. Morgan faces a maximum sentence of eight years and four months in state prison. Because of his prior rape conviction, he will have to serve at least 80 percent of any sentence he receives, according to the release. Sentencing is set for March 16.

This story was originally published February 4, 2017 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Convicted Modesto rapist convicted of resisting officer on fugitive apprehension team."