Teen Faces Life Sentence for Double Homicide in White Lake Twp.
August 17, 2023
April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com
A teenage inmate in the Oakland County jail faces a possible life sentence without parole following the deaths of two people at a mobile home park in White Lake Township last year.
19-year-old Steven Dean Morrow (top picture) was 18 when he committed double-murder in the Cedarbrook Estates Mobile Home Park, located off Bogie Lake Road & M-59.
Police connected Morrow to the deaths of 16-year-old Drake Mancuso and 20-year-old Cameron Duckworth on May 21, 2022.
Earlier this year, Morrow pleaded guilty to felony murder and armed robbery charges. Co-defendant, Jesse James Wright, 19 (bottom picture) pleaded guilty to an added charge of accessory after the fact.
Mancuso and Duckworth were both from Highland Township and were said to have been alleged acquaintances of Morrow and Wright.
According to the Oakland Press, investigators determined Morrow and Wright lured both victims into a wooded area near a pond before Morrow (identified as the shooter) fatally shot them multiple times.
The victims’ money, a backpack, and a watch, were also stolen.
Duckworth’s mother reportedly said her next-door neighbor had surveillance camera footage of Morrow looking in the windows of her house several times the day before the shooting.
Morrow will attend a pre-sentencing hearing, or a “Miller” hearing in February of 2024, as Michigan law requires the proceeding for offenders 18 years of age and younger who are facing a potential life sentence.
Wright was ordered to pay $5,000 restitution and will serve less than a year of jail time with credit for 330 days served.