Trial

ment of crime in connection with the alleged 8:15 a.m. July 27 fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Morgan Darlyn McCaffery, of Abington, as the pair reportedly met on the parking lot of the train station to discuss their relationship.

The hearing was held at the county courthouse and was attended by a limited number of members of the families of McCaffery and Newton. All parties wore face coverings and abided by social distancing requirements set by court officials during the pandemic.

During the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kathleen McLaughlin presented witnesses who testified about physical evidence recovered at the scene, including knives allegedly used during the slaying, and about Newton’s alleged confession when police encountered him at his home several hours after the fatal stabbing.

“She had been stabbed over 30 times to vital parts of her body,” McLaughlin argued, adding Ginsu-style knives found at the murder scene matched other knives found at Newton’s home.

Defense lawyer A. Charles Peruto unsuccessfully argued prosecutors didn’t provide sufficient evidence to link Newton and McCaffery and that the charges should be dismissed.

“There’s no nexus between the two,” Peruto argued to Kessler.

While cross-examining one detective, Peruto asked if McCaffery’s purse had been recovered at the scene, appearing to suggest that McCaffery may have been killed during a robbery.

After the hearing, Peruto did not comment about potential defense strategies.

“This is a sad case on both sides and we’re going to see how it plays out,” Peruto said.

Newton, who wore a red jailhouse jumpsuit and red face covering, showed no emotion in the courtroom during the hearing. He is being held at the jail in Lower Providence without bail.

The investigation began when Abington police responded to the train station parking lot at Lindsay Lane and Mill Road for a report of a disturbance and found McCaffery lying in the parking lot, covered in blood, according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective William Mitchell and Abington Detective Donald Lindenmuth.

“I saw a female lying on her back with her arms and legs extended. She was covered in blood. She was showing no signs of life,” Abington Police Officer David Wiley testified during the hearing, adding McCaffery’s body was found near her vehicle, a Toyota RAV4.

Witnesses told police they observed a white Jeep vehicle, operated by a “tall, skinny white male,” leaving the scene.

County Detective Edward Schikel, who collected evidence at the scene, testified an autopsy determined McCaffery suffered more than 30 stab and slash wounds to her head, face, neck, chest and back and her death was ruled a homicide.

Schikel testified a large, bloodstained knife was found near the gear shift inside the RAV4. A second Ginsu-style knife was found underneath McCaffery’s body, according to testimony.

“It was a partially broken knife found underneath her. The blade was missing,” Schikel testified, adding the

- Montgomery County Prosecutor Kathleen McLaughlin

blade of the knife was found nearby, on the ground below the driver’s side door of the RAV4.

Schikel testified that when detectives searched Newton’s Philadelphia home they found Ginsu knives matching those found at the murder scene. Detectives also observed blood on the driver’s side door of a white Jeep vehicle that was parked in front of Newton’s home.

Detectives said Philadelphia police responded to a 911 call at Newton’s Ferndale Street residence where Newton’s mother “told them her son was covered in blood and had said that he had hurt his girlfriend,”

according to the criminal complaint.

Philadelphia Police Officer Thomas Purcell testified he observed Newton sitting on a couch.

“There was blood on his clothing. It was a large amount,” Purcell testified, adding Newton confessed to stabbing his girlfriend at the train station “and that he didn’t want to be here anymore, that he didn’t want to be in this world anymore.”

“He was almost staring into space,” Purcell recalled.

During the investigation, friends of McCaffery told detectives that the young woman and Newton ended their year-long relationship about a month before the alleged fatal attack. One friend told detectives that McCaffery had contacted her after the breakup and claimed that Newton had “threatened her and she was scared for her safety,” Mitchell and Lindenmuth alleged in the criminal complaint.

Newton allegedly had been contacting McCaffery “in an attempt to rekindle the relationship claiming he was going to ‘fix things’ or change himself, detectives alleged.