MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Emmanuel Morales has been stuck in a nightmarish limbo for years in Miami-Dade County.
As a teen growing up in Miami’s Liberty City, records show arrests for a school bus stop shooting, stolen guns, a restaurant burglary, and a park robbery.
“The court system has failed my son. I begged for help, that my son is incompetent,” Crystal Morales said during a court hearing in 2022 after the school bus stop shooting. “He is unstable, and I begged for help, and nobody has offered me any help.”
According to inmate records, Morales has been in the custody of the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department since he was 16 years old at the Juvenile Assessment Center.
According to court records, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda has been presiding over his cases. Some have been pending since September 2022.
Earlier this year, Miranda signed a court order directing a qualified mental health professional to determine if Morales was mentally capable of standing trial after a public defender’s motion.
On Wednesday, as a 19-year-old inmate, he faced new accusations of repeated violence — some involving makeshift weapons and gang-related conflicts — at the Pre-Trial Detention Center.
Violence at PTDC
On Tuesday, Morales waited for his cellmate to be in handcuffs to use a “makeshift shank” to cause his cellmate “a superficial cut to the back of his neck,” according to a M-DSO deputy’s report.
A Miami-Dade corrections officer reported using a self-defense spray to subdue Morales during the attack shortly before 12:15 a.m. Tuesday at PTDC’s 10th floor, according to the deputy’s report.
Miami-Dade prosecutors filed the case on Wednesday, and he faced a new charge of aggravated battery by a prisoner. His bond was $15,000.
Gang-related violence at PTDC
On March 20, Morales and four other inmates attacked a victim after corrections placed him in their cell, and there was an argument about “The Blood gang,” according to a deputy’s report.
“Surveillance cameras depict the victim standing in the dayroom when suddenly all of the cameras within the cell were covered by unknown inmates,” a deputy wrote, according to the report.
The victim suffered “several puncture wounds to the back, neck, and hand” and was treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, according to the deputy’s report.
Corrections searched the cell and found two more “shanks,” according to the deputy’s incident report. Morales faced a charge of aggravated battery by a prisoner. His arraignment is on April 24.
More violence at PTDC
On Feb. 19, Morales got into a fight with an inmate in a cell while “other inmates in the cell covered all cameras,” according to a deputy’s report.
Prosecutors filed the battery by detainee on detainee case on Feb. 20, and the case was dropped on March 23, according to court records.
On Nov. 10, Morales and another inmate used paper to cover a surveillance camera in a cell before two other inmates got into a fight, according to a deputy’s report.
Prosecutors filed the case on Nov. 11, and the case was closed on Dec. 19, according to court records.
School bus stop shooting
Shortly after 7:55 a.m., on Sept. 8, 2022, Morales, then 16 years old, used a black firearm with an extended magazine to shoot and wound two students while trying to rob them of their phones, according to a deputy’s report.
Miami-Dade deputies responded to the shooting at the boys’ school bus stop at Northwest 10 Avenue and 109 Street in the Pinewood neighborhood, according to the deputy’s report.
The two wounded boys survived, Morales ran away, and when Miami Shores police officers arrested him, they found him in possession of three stolen firearms, according to the deputy’s arrest report.
Morales had a Glock 26 that had been reported stolen in Miami in his waistband; an Olympic Arms K23B that had been reported stolen in Miami-Dade in his backpack; and a Glock 23, 40 Smith & Wesson caliber, that he had been accused of stealing in Miami, also in his backpack, according to the police report.
Prosecutors filed the case on Sept. 30, 2022. He faced 19 charges: Three counts of attempted murder with a firearm, three counts of possession of a firearm by a minor, three counts of using a weapon to commit a felony, three counts of carrying a concealed firearm, two counts of armed robbery, armed burglary, aggravated assault with a firearm, possession of a short-barrel gun, third-degree grand theft of a vehicle, and resisting arrest without violence.
The case remained pending on Wednesday afternoon, according to court records.
Stealing a gun
On July 19, 2022, Morales stole the G23 40 S&W caliber from a black GMC SUV that a driver he knew had parked by a gas pump at the Marathon station at Northwest 12th Avenue and 54 Street, according to police.
“The victim stated that he has known the defendant for many years, as he went to high school with the defendant’s mother,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.
The victim heard his car alarm, saw Morales, then 16 years old, running away with the G23, and he drove to Morales’s house to talk to his mother and call the police for help, according to the report.
Prosecutors filed the case on Oct. 30 on charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, third-degree grand theft of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, and possession of a firearm by a minor. His arraignment was on Oct. 6, 2022. The case remains pending.
Park robbery
On Feb. 27, 2022, Morales, then 15 years old, took a man’s sports bag and stole AirPods at the Charles Hadley Park in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, according to a police report.
Morales faced a charge of third-degree grand theft. Prosecutors filed the case on Oct. 3, 2022, and it remained pending on Wednesday afternoon, according to court records. His next hearing is June 15.
Restaurant burglary
On Jan. 16, 2022, surveillance video showed Morales, then 15, stealing $450 in cash and three cash registers from a Church’s Chicken in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, according to police.
Morales faced charges of burglary of an unoccupied structure, petit theft, and criminal mischief. Records show he was at JAC when prosecutors filed the case on Sept. 30, 2022. It remained pending on Wednesday.
Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.
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