Man Who Burned Wife’s Body on Boat Is Convicted of Murder

PHOENIX —  A man who drove his wife’s body to San Diego, put it on a boat and set the boat afire was convicted of murder Tuesday by a jury that rejected his claim that he was merely disposing of a suicide victim.

The verdict against Gaylynn Earl Morris, 51, was returned after about three hours of deliberations by a Maricopa County Superior Court Jury.

Morris, an accountant, could be sentenced to 25 years to life.

Morris declined to comment to reporters after the verdict.

“There’s really no winners or losers in a situation like this,” said a daughter, Dawna Kay Wells. “I’m relieved that it’s finally done. We’ve gotten through this.”

The prosecution contended that Morris killed his wife, Ruby, because he was embarrassed when she confronted him about an affair with her sister and threatened to expose his skimming from his business.

Morris said his wife took her own life and he disposed of her body to avoid being blamed.

“He was too selfish to live up to his responsibility,” defense attorney Tom Henze said in his closing statement.

Ruby Morris, 49, died of a gunshot wound June 3, 1989. Morris testified that he was elsewhere in the house when she shot herself. He said he cleaned his wife’s body, dressed her in a sweat suit and drove her the next day to San Diego, propped up in a sitting position in the cab of his pickup truck.

Family members reported the couple missing the day after Ruby Morris died. Investigators searched the home and found what they concluded were bloodstains on the headboard in the couple’s bedroom.

Morris returned to Arizona on June 5, 1989. He professed ignorance about his wife’s whereabouts and said he learned about her disappearance during a telephone call he made while driving to Los Angeles to visit a daughter.

Authorities later said Morris had rented a boat in San Diego and used it to tow his 26-foot cabin cruiser to sea, where it was burned in water too deep for the hulk to be recovered. Morris was indicted in March, 1990.

During the six-week trial, Morris testified that he had an affair with his wife’s sister. The sister denied it.

Henze argued that Ruby Morris took her own life because she was emotionally ravaged by her husband’s affair and lingering distress from being sexually assaulted as a teen-ager by her father.

“They kept this secret for 30 years. This woman had never had a chance to heal from that,” Henze said.