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A 37-year-old Sandy man — already charged with holding an 18-year-old woman prisoner in a shed in Duchesne County for about six weeks, while forcing her to perform sex acts in exchange for food and water — has been charged in Salt Lake County with sexually abusing two other girls.
Jared Stephen Morgan was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with 14 first-degree felonies, including aggravated sexual abuse, rape, sodomy on a child and forcible sodomy, and one count of second-degree felony kidnapping. Each first-degree felony is punishable by a prison sentence of up to life behind bars.
Morgan came in contact with the two girls, who are sisters, when he began dating their mother, charges state.
He allegedly began to touch the older sister inappropriately in 2006, when she was 12 years old, and began having sexual intercourse with her when she turned 14. Morgan began having sex with the younger girl when she turned 16, charges state.
Morgan later ran off with the younger girl to Idaho and Arizona, charges state.
In 2014, close to when the younger girl turned 18, Morgan had her return to Utah, where she stayed with him at his cabin in Duchesne County and at his parents' home in Sandy, charges state. They remained in a sexual relationship until this year, charges state.
A year earlier, while the younger sister was staying with Morgan's brother in Arizona, Morgan began dating the mother of a third alleged victim, and became a father figure in her life, charges state.
In April 2014, after the girl turned 18, Morgan invited her to stay at his Duchesne County cabin, where they began to have sexual encounters — many of which were against her will, charges state.
Charges in Duchesne County against Morgan state that after the 18-year-old and Morgan had a fight, he locked her in a shed and told her she had to eat rat excrement off the floor, drink her own urine and not throw up before he would give her food, charges state.
The teen later told investigators, "I didn't puke," and Morgan gave her a "small cup of water and a can of cold raviolis to eat," charges state.
After that, Morgan would come to the shed and force her to perform a sexual act to get food and water, charges state, and the teen said she didn't dare tell him no.
The teen said she was locked in the shed at about the beginning of June 2014, and was not let out until about the middle of July.
In both Duchesne County and later at Morgan's parents' home in Sandy, the teen described being forced to have sex with Morgan while he was wearing a firearm on his hip, or while he was holding a stun gun in one hand, charges state.
In September, Morgan was charged in Duchesne's 8th District Court with first-degree felony counts of aggravated human trafficking, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, rape and forcible sodomy.
On Friday, he was being held at the Duchesne County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
A scheduling hearing in the Duchesne County case is set for Jan. 3. No court dates have been set in the Salt Lake County case.
In August 2012, Morgan was charged in Salt Lake County with five first-degree felonies for allegedly sexually abusing the older of the two sisters, but the case was dismissed about eight months later.
Jeffrey Hall, chief deputy for the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has said that "changes to the evidence subsequent to filing" caused prosecutors to believe they did not have a reasonable likelihood of winning a conviction at trial.