Inmate being held in Washington County for federal parole violation faces murder charge in Idaho

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ST. GEORGE — An Arizona man held in Washington County on federal parole violation was set to be released but will remain in custody awaiting extradition after local prosecutors received a first-degree murder warrant filed in connection with the grisly slaying of an Idaho man in January

The suspect, Klee Lee Morrison, of Littlefield, Arizona, is in custody in Washington County on a first-degree murder warrant issued out of Minidoka County, Idaho, that was filed in connection with the murder of 41-year-old Julio Lopez, who was killed in Heyburn, Idaho, on Jan. 2.

According to Idaho authorities, Morrison traveled to Idaho to help his brother, 33-year-old Kalob Morrison, kill the man.

The federal hold was set to expire when the  $1 million murder warrant was sent to the Washington County Attorney’s Office last week, prompting local prosecutors to file a fugitive complaint to hold the suspect in Utah, Washington County Attorney Eric Gentry told St. George News.

The warrant came to light when a federal parole agent filed a violation report in federal court, listing the murder warrant under new criminal charges filed against the suspect while on parole. 

Morrison is being held in jail in Washington County until extradition arrangements can be made for his return to Idaho where he faces multiple charges that include first-degree murder, as well as one count each of evidence destruction, alteration or concealment and failure to notify authorities of a death.

At the time of the alleged incident, the brothers lured Lopez to Kaleb Morrison’s home, police say, and killed him by bludgeoning him to death with a 6-pound sledgehammer before shooting the victim in the back of the head.

According to authorities in Idaho, the two suspects then placed Lopez’s body in his own vehicle, a Ford Expedition, and drove him to a remote area in Minidoka County in southern Idaho, where they set fire to the SUV. Authorities located the burned-out car off of state Highway 24 near the Lincoln County border and then found an ankle monitor on Lopez that later revealed he was at Morrison’s residence on the day of the murder, as reported by the Idaho State Journal in February.

Kalob Morrison, 33, was booked into jail following murder in Heyburn, Idaho, Jan. 5, 2022 | Photo courtesy of the Minidoka County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

Video footage also collected by detectives showed Klee Morrison, who was driving his pickup truck, following behind his brother who was driving Lopez’s Ford Expedition, with the victim’s body inside.

Kaleb Morrison was taken into custody four days after the incident, while the warrant was issued for Morrison’s arrest, since prosecutors in Idaho stated the suspect was in federal custody in Arizona on an unrelated case.

As it turned out, Morrison was not in federal custody at the time of the incident. The defendant served more than nine years in a federal correctional facility in Fort Worth, Texas, but on March 11, 2021, he was transferred to a halfway house in Phoenix, Arizona, until Sept. 1, which was his official parole date, according to prison records.

His case was then transferred to Utah, where federal parole agents could manage the defendant’s post-prison supervision and allow Morrison to be closer to his family.

Meanwhile, Morrison left the state, and less than four months after leaving the halfway house, he traveled to his bother’s Idaho home in Heyburn to assist in the murder of Lopez, authorities say. One week after the murder, Morrison was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility on Jan. 9 and was being held on a federal parole violation for leaving the state. Parole agents would learn that Morrison allegedly was involved in a murder in Idaho, which is when they filed the violation report in federal court. 

The suspect’s brother was arrested on Jan. 5, and he has also been charged in the case. He remains in custody at the Mini-Cassia County Jail in Idaho on a $1 million bond.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact. 

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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