Detention deputy says Dontae Morris 'repented' for murder of Rodney Jones

TAMPA - "There won't be any doubt, in any of your minds.  Dontae Morris is a murderer," said Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon.

Morris' name is synonymous with a city-wide manhunt following the slayings of two Tampa police officers in 2010.  In total, Morris is charged with killing five people that year.

"This defendant attacked.  He went up to Mr. Jones and put a gun to his head,” said Harmon.

But the jurors, handpicked in Orlando, sitting in these chairs, only know Morris faces life in prison for robbing and killing 42-year-old Rodney Jones. Club-goers remember Jones because of a stack of cash in his pocket.

"It was a big wad," motioned Linda Johnson who was at the club the night of the murder.

Detectives say Morris shot Jones execution-style outside of a west Tampa nightclub called "The Cotton Club."

A medical examiner says the bullet ripped through his jugular and carotid artery, shattering a car window. A detention deputy testified he heard Morris confess months later sitting in a Falkenberg Road jail cell.

"He said, I repent for killing," said Detention Deputy Ruben Clemente on the stand. 

State prosecutors say Morris used his girlfriend, Corntee Brantley, to set up an alibi through text messages.

"He text messages her and says, 'listen if anything foolish happens, you and me spent the night together in Palm River since 7 at night,'" said Harmon.

Morris' girlfriend was convicted in Federal court in February for withholding evidence in the slayings of the police officers, a murder case Morris has yet to go on trial for, but the jury doesn't know that.