Motive: Victim wanted a son

MYRA MORTON couldn't give her husband more children, but her younger, thinner romantic rival in Morocco was apparently ripe and ready to conceive.

That, according to authorities, was why hubby Jereleigh Morton, 47, was to fly off to the North African country last Sunday - to impregnate his second wife, Zahra Toural, in hopes of having a son.

The trip, Montgomery County authorities contend, was why Myra Morton, also 47, killed her husband with two gunshot blasts to the head while he slept in their million-dollar Whitpain Township home early Sunday.

Authorities yesterday also contended that the family's $6 million in assets was another motive for the killing. Myra Morton is a beneficiary of Jereleigh's will.

Myra Morton surrendered to the Montgomery County Detective Bureau in Norristown yesterday morning, dressed in black Muslim garb that included a head covering that showed only her eyes. She was flanked by her two defense attorneys, Brian McMonagle and Timothy Woodward.

She was charged with first- and third-degree murder, weapons offenses, and with providing false reports to law-enforcement authorities. She is being held without bail.

In this sordid tale of murder, sex and second wives, more details emerged yesterday about how Myra Morton could have spiraled into a jealous rage and possibly killed her husband, and about Jereleigh Morton's relationship with his second wife.

Details also emerged about lingerie purchased for the Moroccan wife and a letter Myra Morton wrote to the U.S. State Department trying to prevent her rival from entering this country.

Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference that Jereleigh Morton met Toural, 35, through www.qiran.com, a matchmaking Web site for Muslims.

"Mr. Morton wanted to take this second wife because he wanted to have more children," Ferman said.

In an affidavit of probable cause, Myra Morton had allegedly confided to her friend Marguerite Griffin that she was no longer able to have children and that her husband wanted a son.

Morton also confided to Griffin that she was unhappy about the second marriage, and "the other wife was changing her husband and that he would send her $3,000 a month in 'maintenance money,' " the affidavit said.

On Sunday, Jereleigh Morton was to fly to Morocco via Paris on Air France. "The reason for that trip was his new wife was ovulating and they were preparing to have a child," Ferman said.

Jereleigh Morton apparently bought some clothes he intended to bring to his Moroccan wife, including a "yellowish-green lightweight women's nightwear set," the affidavit said. Its size: small.

Myra Morton is 5 feet 3 and wears large-sized clothing, the affidavit said.

But when Jereleigh Morton didn't show up in the Casablanca airport Monday morning, Toural, his younger wife, tried contacting her husband and Myra Morton, but got no answers, Ferman said.

"At some point, she heard he had been killed," Ferman said after the news conference. That's when Toural found a story about her husband's murder on the NBC 10 Web site and posted a note on a message board there trying to get answers, Ferman said.

Through that note, Ferman said, authorities were able to contact Toural, who lives in a small town northeast of Casablanca, the country's largest city.

Montgomery County detectives called Toural in Morocco on Wednesday. According to the affidavit, she met Jereleigh Morton online in December. Myra Morton allowed her husband to marry Toural in March, but "became upset with this marriage almost immediately," Toural said.

Myra and Jereleigh Morton visited Toural in Morocco twice, where all three shared an apartment together. During the second visit, the wives "frequently screamed and argued" and their husband told Myra Morton "if you don't like polygamy, get a divorce," Toural said, according to the affidavit.

Myra Morton tried to prevent Toural from entering this country by writing a so-called "poison pen" letter dated April 20, 2007, to the U.S. State Department. In it, according to the affidavit, Morton wrote: "I've just became a victim of polygamy.

"He is desperatley trying to bring her to our country. He is married to me and I'm a US citizen. . . . He says he is telling her to come as a tourist and not mention me on the papers from immigration in her country."

She begs of the State Department: "Please don't let her come here - don't let her in US."

Myra Morton also alleged in the letter that Toural might have ties to terrorist organizations by writing that Toural "knows a whole lot about the bombings [in Casablanca] and the people involved."

Police went to the Mortons' house on West Mount Pleasant Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Sunday following a 911 call placed from the home about a burglary with a person shot. Jereleigh Morton was found dead in his bed.

Ferman said the shots, one to his left cheek and the other above his left eye, were fired at close range. Investigators determined the victim had been killed by a Glock handgun he owned, and they found two .40-caliber shell cases, one at the base of Myra Morton's pillow and the other on the floor, by the victim's side of the bed.

Myra Morton told police she had been sleeping next to her husband when she heard gunshots and saw someone leaving through the bedroom's sliding door that opens onto a rear concrete patio.

Ferman said physical evidence in the investigation, conducted by the Whitpain Township Police Department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, did not back up that story.

If Myra Morton were in the bed, "she would have had blood sprayed all over her. She did not have any blood evidence on her at all," Ferman said.

Also, an Upper Moreland Township police K-9 dog detected no intruder's scent outside, Ferman said.

The Mortons' daughter, Amina, and her husband, Harouna Sokhouna, both in their 20s, and their infant son also live in the house, Ferman said.

At 1 p.m. yesterday, Morton was formally arraigned before Magisterial District Judge John Murray in Blue Bell. Led through a crowd of reporters and photographers, Morton, whose headdress had been removed by this time, kept her head lowered and appeared to be mumbling to herself.

During the brief arraignment, Murray set a preliminary hearing date of Aug. 20 in his courtroom.

Afterward, defense attorney McMonagle said Morton had surrendered to authorities yesterday because "she was asked to surrender by law-enforcement officers."

Asked if Morton had killed her husband, McMonagle did not reply.

McMonagle said Morton is "going through a horrific time" after losing her husband, then being taken into custody. She is concerned for her family, he said. He and co-defense counsel Woodward said they still needed to review the evidence in the case.

The Mortons previously lived on Allegheny Avenue near 19th Street in North Philadelphia. According to Philadelphia court records, after their teenaged daughter, Aatifa Morton, died on May 31, 2001, the Mortons sued local hospitals and physicians for failing to diagnose Aatifa with Crohn's disease in a timely way and provide proper treatment.

In an August 2005 settlement, the Mortons received $8 million after legal fees and other costs.

Months afterward, they bought their $1 million house in Whitpain Township. *