Man pleads guilty in slaying of girlfriend, infant

Daniel Hicks, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing his girlfriend and their infant daughter, appeared impatient at the stream of questions from the prosecutor and judge about whether he understood what he was doing.

Hicks nodded, answered tersely and repeatedly said that he realized his pleas to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

"You are never getting out," King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kristin Richardson told the 31-year-old before he entered the plea. Hicks replied, "That is correct."

Hicks' plea saves the family of the victims from sitting through a murder trial in which details of the deaths would be recounted to a jury. It's also the first time a defendant has pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in King County since Green River killer Gary Ridgway admitted to the murders of 48 women in 2003.

Hicks killed Jennifer Morgan, 28, and 13-week-old Emma after an argument in the couple's Beacon Hill home on Dec. 21, 2009. According to charging papers, Hicks threw the infant against a wall and then repeatedly shot the victims. He reloaded the .45-caliber handgun twice, police said.

Hick told police that after the slayings he contemplated taking his own life but instead watched football on TV before driving south until he ran out of gas in Weed, Calif. He then hitchhiked to Santa Cruz.

Once in Santa Cruz, Hicks called his sister and told her what he had done. Seattle police were able to trace the call to a phone booth and authorities in California located Hicks. Hicks later told Seattle police investigators that he didn't want a baby because he had recently lost his job and the couple didn't own the house they were living in.

"I was not in a position where we were ready to have that child," Hicks told his stepmother in a call recorded while he was jailed in Santa Cruz. "I asked her to get an abortion, and she refused."

Through interviews with Morgan's mother, Hicks' brother and half-sister, and one of Morgan's co-workers, detectives learned Hicks had been depressed and suicidal for some time — and his condition worsened when he learned Morgan, his girlfriend of nine years, was pregnant, the charging papers say.

King County prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against Hicks because of his history of mental illness. Prosecutors said that he was sane when the killings occurred.

On Tuesday, defense attorneys Gary Davis and Kevin Dolan said Hicks pushed for the plea.

"Mr. Hicks understands it; this is what he wants to do," Dolan told Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead.

Formal sentencing is set for Feb. 18.

Morgan's family attended Tuesday's plea hearing but declined to speak afterward.

Richardson, the senior deputy prosecutor, said she questioned Hicks in detail about his wish to plead guilty to aggravated murder because the mandatory sentence is life in prison.

"We're really, really happy he has kept [Morgan's] family from having to sit through a trial," Richardson said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com