Shooter Cleared – “Do you have to sit still when a guy’s driving off with your car?” Mr. Holmes said in an interview. “No, I don’t think so. I think you ought to be able to use deadly force.”
It’s been over 25 years since Tommy Deen Morris was murdered with a high-powered rifle by a borrower in Texas, but the danger posed by dual repossession assignments seems to be continuously lost on the newcomers to the collections and repossession industry.
Feb 24, 1994
It’s a little before 3:00am on Feb 24, 1994 in Houston Texas, a tow truck idled backwards up a driveway intending to repossess a Ford truck. Suddenly the lights in the house come on and a man runs outside. The repo driver, fearing for his life, drives away and leaves the truck he was after behind.
About 15 minutes later, a second repo man from another company, Tommy Deen Morris, backs up into the same driveway. This time the debtor, Jerry Casey Jr., is waiting on his porch with a 30-30 telescopic rifle and shoots him through the neck and both lungs, killing him.
Police refused to arrest him. Citing a frontier-era law, Texas Penal Code 9.41, an 1800’s frontier era law created to deal with cattle thieves, that gives Texans considerable leeway at night to kill thieves and intruders.
Tommy Deen Morris left behind his wife and 4 children.
Harris County District Attorney, Johnny B. Holmes Jr., said the matter would simply boil down to whether a grand jury believed that Mr. Casey believed the repo man was an auto thief. Holmes defended the Texas law and seemed disinterested in prosecuting Mr. Casey and instead chose to question why T.D. didn’t call or give some warning that he was coming.
“Do you have to sit still when a guy’s driving off with your car?” Mr. Holmes said in an interview. “No, I don’t think so. I think you ought to be able to use deadly force. That’s an additional risk that the thief is exposed to and that’s an additional deterrent.”
Furthermore, Texas Legislature has refused to overturn this archaic law.
“If Tommy Deen would have been a police officer or a firefighter, they’d have a parade. But everybody thinks, ‘Oh, he was just a repo man.’ Nobody cares.” Texas Repo Man Jim Douglass,” – “The New York Times” 1994
Despite public outcry from not only the repossession industry, but from across the nation, the debtor, Jerry Casey Jr. was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Casey ended up committing suicide 8 months later.
Some 3 years after the shooting a Jury ruled that the assigning lender, Steeplechase Motors was mostly liable for Morris’ death because of their policy of double assigning and advised a $2.3 million judgment against Steeplechase, of which the judge ultimately awarded the family a mere $750,000. (Rest assured, the next lender will not get off so lucky)
Tommy Deen Morris is buried at Klein Memorial Park, Decker Prairie, Montgomery County, Texas.
Lessons Learned
The tragic part of this story is that this senseless killing could have been avoided if the dealer who assigned the repossession order did not engage in the dangerous practice of “double assigning” accounts.
Following the murder, the practice of double assigning repossessions had all but completely vanished in Texas, and most other states, for years as the industry took note and adjusted accordingly. Unfortunately, it seems to be making a comeback.
For those unaware of what “Double Assigning an account” is;
Double assigning an account is: assigning an account out for repossession to two or more repossession agents in the same geographical area at the same time.
It’s been several years since CUCollector has mentioned this tragedy, but it needs to be repeated from time to time, as some of the lessons that should have been learned in 1994 seem to have been forgotten by many of the people now in the industry, who either weren’t in the business then, were too young or may not have even been born yet.
Please Share This Article with All Staff Who Assign Repossessions. It could save a life.
To all Lenders, Collectors and Forwarding company personnel, if a borrower threatens or has threatened a repossession agent or your staff, please share this important information with the agent you assign the account to. Please remember Tommy Deen Morris, his widow Donna and their four children next time you consider double assigning a repossession. It’s just not worth it.
Kevin
Editor
CUCollector.com
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