Sentencing clears way for Trial in deaths
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 02:14 p.m., May 21, 2008
Updated 02:14 p.m., May 21, 2008
A Washington state woman has been sentenced for traffic violations resulting from her alleged involvement in the Sept. 11, 2007, deaths of two men working along U.S. Highway 59 near Pleasant Grove in Douglas County. One of the men killed was former Emporian Tyrone “Ty” Thomas Korte.
Ramona Morgan, 48, of Chewelah, Wash., received a seven-month sentence on Tuesday in Osage County District Court after she was convicted of felony fleeing and attempting to elude law-enforcement officers. She was fined $60 on each of the traffic infractions, according to information from Osage County Attorney Brandon L. Jones.
“The court dismissed the reckless driving charge because it merged with the felony fleeing and attempting to elude offense,” Jones said.
Morgan was given credit for 253 days already served in the Osage County Jail and will be released to authorities from Douglas County, where she faces two second-degree murder charges. The time served in jail was longer than the seven-month sentence she received.
Morgan is accused of striking the two men with a pickup truck as they worked along Highway 59.
Korte, who graduated from Emporia State University and worked for several years at the former Food-4-Less grocery store, was an engineering technician for the Kansas Department of Transportation.
The second man, Roland Griffith, 24, of El Dorado, was employed by a highway contractor. A third worker, Amanda Hopper, was injured in the accident.
The Osage County charges came after a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper spotted a pickup that matched the description of the truck involved in the accident. He chased the vehicle for about 10 minutes before officers in Osage County placed “stop spikes” in the roadway and flattened the tires of Morgan’s pickup. Morgan was stopped about two miles farther down the road. She was accompanied by her daughter, Sabrina Morgan.