Documents released in Tampa police officers' murders

TAMPA - More than 700 pages of investigative documents were released Friday in the case against Dontae Morris. He's accused of murdering two Tampa police officers last summer.

Officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis were gunned down during a traffic stop during the early morning hours of June 29.

The documents were made public two weeks after a dashboard camera video was released. The camera captured the horrific moment when officers Kocab and Curtis were shot.

Lawyers for Morris argued that the video and documents should not be released, but, for the most part, they lost that battle.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Daniel Sleet ordered that no copies of the video be provided. It is available for viewing at the State Attorney's Office and was seen by Bay area journalists on March 25.

Sleet also ordered that some of the documents remain sealed.

A four-day-long manhunt for Morris followed the killings. He finally turned himself in and is charged with murdering the officers and three other unrelated killings.

abcactionnnews.com is reviewing the documents, and uncovered the following:

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Angela Murphy, the mother of a son of Dontae Morris, was among the first people interviewed by police to identify Morris as the gunman.

Murphy did so from still photos generated from the video retrieved from the dashboard video from Officer David Curtis’s patrol cruiser.

Murphy was positive because she recognized his face and Morris was wearing the same clothing he had on when she talked to him within a couple hours before the shooting earlier that morning.

During that earlier conversation, shortly after midnight, Murphy said Morris had wanted to spend the night with her. She declined because she had to get up early that morning.

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Sam Oglesby dated Courtnee Brantley while Morris was in prison. During an interview with police, Oglesby related what Brantley had told him about the traffic stop.

Apparently when the patrol cruiser’s lights came on, Morris grabbed a gun in the car. “He went to moving the gun up in his lap,” Oglesby told police of Brantley’s recollection, “like man I ain’t going back, I can’t go back.”

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Sam Oglesby also told police that Brantley was reluctant to talk about why she fled the shooting scene.

When he asked about it, Oglesby said: “No, she shook her head. She shook her head.”

Oglesby said he told her: “Even if you did know, it would’ve helped you just to stay there and say he put the gun to your head and made you drive, you could’ve did anything, you could’ve sat there and tried to help the officer, made up that story even though you know what’s going on.”

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Check back for further details as they are uncovered.