OAKLEY — In the aftermath of the crash that killed 21-year-old Edward Morgan, his mother granted a police interview in which she tried to explain how her Chrysler PT Cruiser had veered off the roadway as it travelled eastbound on Highway 4.
Yes, she had been drinking earlier in the evening at a Mother’s Day celebration with her family in Oakland, 44-year-old Latyna Morgan allegedly told police. And yes, she’d smoked marijuana at the start of dinner, too. But she insisted she had no memory of the actual crash, and that she’d certainly never have driven off the road intentionally, she said.
California Highway Patrol officers on the scene had already smelled alcohol on Latyna Morgan at the scene of the crash that night, where Edward Morgan was killed and the car’s other four occupants, including Latyna herself, were injured. But days later, when police downloaded the contents of one of the children’s cellphone, the investigation took a drastic turn.
The video, shot by Latyna Morgan’s daughter, showed a heated argument between Latyna and Edward in the front seats of the car, while three other siblings — two children and an adult — sat in the backseat. Just seconds before he was killed, the 21-year-old confronted his mother, authorities said.
“You are drinking and driving,” he allegedly told her. Police say Latyna Morgan responded with an “incoherent rant,” followed by a clearcut threat.
“I’ll drive this b—- off the road,” she allegedly shouted. Less than three seconds later, authorities say she did just that.
As her daughter screamed, “Mom,” the Chrysler veered off Highway 4, at which point a loud crash could be heard on the video. The video continues on to show two of the backseat’s occupants attempting to help the other three people out of the car, authorities said.
“Due to the statement made by Latyna Morgan during the video recording it became apparent that this was no longer a crash, but an intentional act carried out by Latyna Morgan,” a CHP investigator would later write in a report.
Now, Latyna Morgan is in jail facing charges of murder, driving under the influence of alcohol and a drug and two counts of child abuse. She remains jailed in Contra Costa County and has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
The charges came at the end of an investigation that lasted nearly 18 months. The crash occurred about 10 minutes before midnight on May 8, 2022. CHP officers who smelled alcohol on her breath conducted three breathalyzer tests, which confirmed the presence of alcohol but indicated that she wasn’t legally drunk. Authorities say Latyna Morgan initially denied consuming any alcohol that night, but then later admitted to drinking vodka lemonade, according to court records.
Three days after the crash, investigators interviewed her at a hospital, where she was still recovering from her injuries. She allegedly told them that she did not feel drunk when she got into the car to drive home from Oakland that night, and that no one accused her of being drunk or tried to stop her from getting behind the wheel.
When police asked her about the video, she denied that it would show anything different from what she was telling police, authorities said. She also admitted to having a DUI arrest decades earlier, when she was 18, but that she’d taken court-ordered drunk driving courses and well understood the dangers of driving while intoxicated.
She was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after the crash, but was not jailed, due to the seriousness of her injuries. She was released from police custody pending investigation, which required officers to not only speak with the car’s surviving occupants, but use data from the collision and the vehicle to mathematically replicate the crash.
The investigation wrapped up last month. Contra Costa prosecutors filed the charges on Oct. 11. She is next due in court on Nov. 7, before Judge David Goldstein, records show.
When police interviewed the girl who took the video from the Chrysler’s backseat, she stood by her mother, authorities said, telling investigators she didn’t believe she would have veered off the road on purpose.