Loved ones remember kindhearted inmate at Las Vegas memorial
Melody Morgan never got the chance to finish her drawing.
While in prison she found unconventional ways to create art, including many pieces she completed from memory: a toilet paper bouquet of roses dyed with the coloring from M&M’s candies, a hand-decorated T-shirt, a painted mug donned with a striking, nearly photographic depiction of her grandmother, and an incomplete crayon drawing of Snow White.
“If she could think it, she made it reality,” her mother, Colleen Lackey, said.
But the Snow White picture was left unfinished. Morgan was found hanging in her cell at Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center on April 28 and died later that day. The 25-year-old had been behind bars for robbery-related charges since she was arrested in 2012.
Her friends and family gathered Saturday afternoon at Mountain’s Edge Regional Park in the southwest valley to remember the woman they called kindhearted and creative.
Morgan had escaped from Jean Conservation Camp on April 19, but was returned to corrections custody two days before her death. Morgan was about seven months away from release, her family said.
Unanswered questions
The Clark County coroner’s office ruled Morgan’s death a suicide, but the family has questions about the circumstances, Bonnie Lopez, her 32-year-old sister, said.
“We just want to know what happened and how it happened,” she said.
Alexis Plunkett, the family’s attorney, said Morgan was supposed to be placed on suicide watch after her return to prison, but she was not.
Morgan lived with mental illness, and her mother wanted to protect her, Plunkett said. Suicide watch would have prevented her from being inside of a room with a sheet and a bunk bed, Plunkett said.
Messages to a Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman on Saturday were not returned prior to publication.
Morgan’s father, 54-year-old Michael Tubick, said she liked animals. Pigeons, specifically. Why?
“Because nobody else liked them,” Tubick said.
The same logic applied to other animals, too, which is why his house is home to 10 dogs, he said.
Tubick said he has been thinking about the time he and his then-15-year-old daughter walked together at a swap meet. It was a hot day, and she was tired, so Tubick carried Morgan on his back. People nearby were confused, but it didn’t matter to Tubick how old she was.
“She was my princess,” he said.
’You create your own family’
Morgan lived with developmental delays after suffering a head injury as a young child, Lackey said. She struggled with tasks such as bike riding, spelling, reading and writing.
But by age 12 or so, Lopez said, Morgan had started to display a knack for the creative. And by the time she graduated high school, she had received a scholarship offer to study art at a school in Seattle, Washington. Yet she never attended, as she was arrested within a few months of graduation, Tubick said.
She began serving time for her charges in January 2014.
Even from prison, Morgan would create. Lackey, 53, said her daughter would draw images that made an impression on her, including drawings of cartoon characters or pop culture figures, and send them to Lackey.
Her creative talents extended to the culinary arts. She threw together a three-layer cake using cookies, candy, frosting and a microwave for her friend Jamie’s birthday while they were both incarcerated.
Morgan had a kind heart and found a way to make living in prison feel like it wasn’t a prison, her friend Tessa said. She made herself available to anybody who needed help or a pick-me-up.
“When you’re in prison, you create your own family,” added Jamie. Both she and Tessa were reticent to have their last names used.
Jamie said she and Morgan were roommates for two years, and Morgan often called her “mom.” Every morning, Jamie would read with her friend to help her relearn to read.
She choked up.
“I didn’t give birth to her, but that girl’s my kid,” she said.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
