Jose Morales testifies unknown men killed girlfriend with a crowbar, kidnapped 1-year-old daughter
Morales, 48, testified that in the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, he was high on PCP when two unknown men got into Christine Holloway’s home in Ansonia, murdered her and kidnapped the 1-year-old daughter they shared together, Vanessa Morales.
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Jose Morales took the witness stand Wednesday on the eighth day of his murder trial at Milford Superior Court to try and convince the jury he didn’t kill his girlfriend.
Morales, 48, testified that in the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, he was high on PCP when two unknown men got into Christine Holloway’s home in Ansonia, murdered her and kidnapped the 1-year-old daughter they shared together, Vanessa Morales.
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Morales began his testimony by giving his account of what happened in the days leading up to that. He said before going to Holloway’s home late Friday, Nov.29, he picked up a friend and went to Bridgeport, where the two smoked what Morales thought was marijuana.
“Next thing you know, I wake up somewhere in Bridgeport in the passenger seat of my car,” Morales testified, adding that he was “so high.”
“As you sit here now, do you know what you ingested?” defense attorney Ed Gavin asked.
“Yeah. He rolled a bag of dust, PCP,” Morales replied.
Morales said before he drove to Holloway’s home for the weekend, that friend gave him two bags of PCP, which he smoked the following night, Saturday, Nov. 20.
“The craving was getting the best of me. I got super high,” Morales told the jury, describing it as akin to drinking a gallon of vodka.
Morales said that after he smoked PCP, he came inside and cracked the bathroom skylight to smoke a cigarette. That’s when he claimed he saw two men running at the house.
Morales testified he called 911—a recorded call that was played for the jury last week. In it, Morales’ slurred voice is heard saying “Myrtle Ave” three times and failing to respond to the operator’s request for a house number. In the background of the call, a woman’s voice can be heard asking Morales what he’s doing. On the stand Wednesday, Morales confirmed that was Holloway, as prosecutors have alleged.
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Morales told the jury, that seconds after that call, he was hit in the face, then in the chest.
“I'm on the floor, and I can hear that there's a struggle going on in the bed area. There’s a fight. I hear screams,” Morales stated from the stand.
He said that’s when he heard one of the men leave with Vanessa.
Morales said Holloway managed to briefly get away from the intruder she was fighting with before he hit her with a crowbar.
“He's angry, and he's cussing out. He hits her two more times,” Morales testified. “When he's pulling back, stuff is just pouring out of Christine's head and splashing all over the place. I tried to do something, but I can’t because I’m stuck. I’m PCP’d. I’m stuck.”
Morales said all he could do was scream, which is when the man threatened him.
“He said that if I called police, the same thing that happened to Christine would happen to my daughter,” Morales claimed, adding that it terrified him. “I was afraid to call the police.”
Court adjourned Wednesday before the end of Morales’ testimony. That’s set to continue Thursday morning.
Morales was the second defense witness to take the stand. A forensic psychologist testified first about the effects of using PCP. Dr. Eric Frazer, with the Yale School of Medicine, said the drug causes mind-altering breaks in reality similar to schizophrenia.
“Things like delusions, delusions or false beliefs. It also includes symptoms like hallucinations, seeing things or hearing things that are not real,” Frazer explained.
Frazer also told the jury that PCP can cause partial or full amnesia of the intoxication period. Morales’ name never came up until the state’s cross examination.
“You have absolutely no idea what substances, if any, Jose Morales was using the weekend of Dec 1, 2019?" Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein asked.
“I don't know," Frazer agreed.
Stein pointed out that Frazer has testified as a defense expert dozens of times but only once for a prosecuting agency. During cross, Frazer also conceded he’d never worked clinically with a PCP intoxicated patient.
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Frazer's testimony came after the prosecution rested its case Wednesday following one final state witness—a forensic anthropologist with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Dr. Kristen Hartnett-McCann explained that she reconstructed Holloway's skull after the autopsy and found a minimum of “eight blunt impacts to the cranium.”
“Is there the possibility there were more?” Stein asked.
“Yes, there is the possibility there were more, especially on the right where I do have some areas of missing bone,” Hartnett-McCann responded.
As she testified, pictures of Holloway’s skull and Hartnett-McCann’s report on it were displayed for the jury. One of the pictures showed 12 cranium fragments, which Hartnett-McCann said she couldn’t use in the reconstruction due to areas of missing bone.
The prosecution spent seven prior days presenting its case. The trial began on April 7 with testimony from Holloway’s boss and body camera footage of police forcing their way into her home during a welfare check. Over the next several days, the jury saw crime scene photos and pictures of blood-stained items—including a diaper genie and children’s books—found in clothing donation bins in Derby. A DNA expert testified the blood matched Holloway’s DNA. She also said Morales’ DNA was located on unstained areas of those items including a T-shirt and the opening of a garbage bag. The jury also watched Morales’ first police interview and footage of him learning police had found Holloway dead.
Judge Shari Murphy told the jury that the defense is expected to wrap up at the end of Thursday or on Monday. The jury also watched Morales’ first police interview, where he denied seeing Holloway or being in Ansonia all weekend, and footage of him learning police had found Holloway dead. There is court on Friday due to the holiday.
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