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Duchesne • She couldn't remember how long she had been inside the small Duchesne County cabin.
But the West Valley City woman testified that, in 2014, she felt she couldn't leave — and was forced to perform sex acts on her captor in exchange for food and water.
"I wanted to eat," she testified in an 8th District courtroom Wednesday. "And I wanted to live."
Her alleged captor, 37-year-old Jared Stephen Morgan, is now charged criminally, accused of kidnapping the then-18-year-old woman and sexually abusing her.
After hearing the woman's preliminary hearing testimony, Judge Samuel Chiara found there was probable cause for Morgan to stand trial on five counts of aggravated sexual abuse and a charge of kidnapping.
Duchesne County prosecutors initially charged Morgan with aggravated human trafficking and other sex abuse-related charges, but they amended those counts on Wednesday morning to the six charges that Morgan will now stand trial on.
The woman testified that between June and July of 2014, she went to a cabin in Duchesne County with Morgan, who was her mother's boyfriend. By the third night, she said, Morgan had begun kissing her and performing sex acts on her.
"I did not understand that I could say no," she said. "I believed he was with my mother. I didn't feel comfortable the entire time."
At some point during her stay, the woman said she got into an argument with Morgan.
"I attempted to strike him [in] my anger," she testified. "He threw me into a neighboring cabin … I had to stay in there, because he got angry every time I left. He would do things that made me feel unsafe."
Though the doors and windows were not locked, the woman testified that she felt she could not leave and was fearful for her life. On five occasions, she testified that she was forced to perform sex acts or have intercourse with Morgan in exchange for food. She said she was given a can of cold ravioli to eat, and at times ate rat feces off the floor at his command.
"I remember I was hungry and cold," she recalled.
The alleged victim testified that, during the sexual acts, Morgan had a gun on his hip. During one encounter, she testified, he raped her at gun point.
The woman eventually left the cabin with Morgan, she testified, and she later left the state. She told a private investigator about the encounter last September, according to charging documents.
Throughout Wednesday's hearing, Morgan shook his head side to side and muttered comments about the woman's testimony.
"It's hard to swallow all these lies," he said.
At one point, he directly asked the woman a question while she was a stand — an outburst that brought a warning from the judge that he could be removed.
Morgan's attorney, Kenneth Brown, asked the judge not to bind the case over for trial, saying the evidence was "very thin."
During his cross-examination of the woman, Brown questioned her account and her feelings for Morgan. She admitted that when she first arrived at the cabin, she felt like she was "in love" with him.
"He took me on a walk in the moonlight," she said. "I spent my entire life believing that's what romance was."
A telephone conference is set in the case for March 6 to discuss evidence issues. Brown told the judge that he has not received all of the discovery in the case, specifically a hard drive of Morgan's that was seized by Sandy law enforcement. Duchesne County Attorney Stephen Foote said that evidence was seized in connection to a separate investigation.
Morgan, of Sandy, is also charged in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court with 14 first-degree felonies, including aggravated sexual abuse, rape, sodomy and kidnapping — accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls who are sisters. In that case, he will in court for a scheduling hearing on Feb. 28.