Two teenage boys testified Tuesday that a Gastonia man molested them in the basement of his grandmother’s home.
The two boys, now 17 and 18, made allegations of sexual abuse against James Daniel Morgan.
Morgan, now 38, is on trial for multiple child sex crimes and misdemeanor stalking.
The prosecution alleges that Morgan used manipulation, drugs and alcohol to molest the two young teens.
Defense attorney Patrick Roberts described the situation differently during his opening statements to the jury.
Roberts said that Morgan was like a big brother to the boys, taking them bicycling, camping and fishing.
Roberts said that the young men accused his client of sex crimes after Morgan decided he was being taken advantage of and didn’t want to pay for any more excursions.
The relationship: An 8th-grader when the alleged abuse began, the first teen to testified that he met Morgan through friends. They lived near each other.
The young man said that he and Morgan started going on outings together, but when they went to the basement where Morgan lived, bad things happened, he testified.
The teen said that Morgan sexually assaulted him several times, mostly in the basement, and attempted to once during a camping trip.
The witness testified that Morgan would buy him cigarettes, give him marijuana and share moonshine that he made in his basement.
When the teen got groggy, Morgan would sexually assault him, the young man said from the witness stand.
A second accuser: The second teen to testify said he met Morgan through the first accuser. The two teens met in middle school and were best friends.
Now 17, the young man said he started to hang out with his friend and Morgan together in 2011.
The three went fishing then went back to Morgan’s place to hang out, the teen testified.
According to the young man, the three smoked marijuana and drank alcohol then started to go to sleep.
That’s when the teen says Morgan sexually assaulted him.
“I remember telling him to stop, that it was hurting me,” he testified.
According to the teen, Morgan stopped the assault when he was asked to.
Both teens testified that they left Morgan’s house the next morning.
Dates and details: Morgan’s defense attorney asked both teens about dates and details of their accusations.
Both accusers said they had trouble determining dates.
The boy who reported repeated abuse said he didn’t know how many times he had been sexually assaulted and he didn’t know when.
The second boy to testified said that he was assaulted in the summer of 2011, but he had few details about the encounter.
At one point Gaston County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Jackson used a dry/erase board to map out a timeline.
Jackson maintains that the period of abuse happened from 2010 to 2011.
Reporting abuse: The first teen to take the witness stand testified that he never reported the repeated abuse because he was afraid.
He testified that Morgan said not to tell or he’d regret it.
The teen testified that after he stopped spending time with his abuser, Morgan started following him and showed up at his house one day.
The teen said he ultimately had an emotional breakdown at school and turned to a school resource officer for help.
The trial: Jury selection in Morgan’s trial began Monday.
By Tuesday morning a jury had been selected and witnesses began to testify. Three were called, Morgan’s two accusers and the sister of one of the accusers.
The young woman who testified wasn’t permitted to say what her brother had said to her, citing hearsay.
But she did say she noticed her brother spending a lot of time with Morgan.
She testified that she told her brother not to hang out with Morgan.
“I didn’t think it was right for a young teenage boy to be hanging out with an older male that he had no family ties to,” she said.
Morgan was arrested in November 2011, charged with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, three counts of crimes against nature, two counts of rape of a child, one count of second-degree sex offense and one count of misdemeanor stalking. He has been in jail awaiting trial for more than two years.
You can reach Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and twitter.com/GazetteDiane.