Black jailer charged with murder of 22yo Mindy Morgenstern

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Moe Maurice Gibbs

Suspect Arrested in Morgenstern Murder

Valley City authorities have arrested a Barnes County jailer and charged him with murder in the death of 22 year old Mindy Morgenstern. Moe Maurice Gibbs was arrested at about 6 p.m. today. He`s being held in the Cass County jail in Fargo.

Valley City Police Chief Dean Ross says Gibbs lived in Morgenstern`s apartment building in Valley City.

Gibbs is charged with Class Double A murder. It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

The police chief held a news conference tonight. He wouldn`t give details about the investigation or any information about a possible motive.

Morgenstern was a student at Valle
y City State University. She is a native of New Salem. She was found dead in her off-campus apartment a week ago today. Her boyfriend says he doesn`t think Morgenstern knew Gibbs. Jordan Ranum says he has no idea why Gibbs may have killed Morgenstern. Ranum says he`s very angry about the whole thing.

Valley City Mayor Mary Lee Nielson says the community is relieved about the arrest. Funeral services for Morgenstern were held yesterday in New Salem.

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Mindy Morgenstern

Funeral Services for Mindy Morgenstern

Bowed heads, tears, but also laughter filled the New Salem High School gym as family, friends, and an entire community said goodbye to a woman who in her short 22 years of life, touched the lives and hearts of so many. Mindy Morgenstern was found dead of knife wounds in her Valley City apartment last Wednesday.

Friends and relatives say Mindy had a passion for people, athletics, happiness, and God, and her Bible was well-used. They say she would view her passing as a way of bringing others closer to God. Mindy had planned to become a coach after she graduated in December.

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Jordan Ranum

Morgenstern's boyfriend speaks out

Jordan Ranum says his girlfriend, Mindy Morgenstern, did not know Moe Gibbs, except for an occasional greeting in the apartment building. He joined many of Morgenstern’s friends and family who attended the announcement of Gibbs' arrest.

Jordan says he did not know the suspect either. He says that he is relieved an arrest has been made, but that he is very, very angry. And he wants answers about why and how this happened.

(Jordan Ranum\Mindy's boyfriend) "The fact that he, if totally boggles my mind, I can't even imagine why he did this, I can't even begin to comprehend why."

Jordan says he and Mindy’s f
amily can't thank investigators enough for working tirelessly to arrest a suspect in the murder.

[3 Ks]

Originally Posted by -88-

(Jordan Ranum\Mindy's boyfriend) I can't even imagine why he did this, I can't even begin to comprehend why."

Fool!!Take a look at that fiendish thing straight from hell!! That poor girl. That was the last thing she saw! "Hang This F****ng Nigger Right Now"!! is what he should be screaming to the media!!

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Murder Suspect Has Previous Criminal Record

Military officials say the man charged with the murder of Valley City State University student Mindy Morgenstern didn't have a clean record prior to his recent arrest.

In fact, they say the 34-year old Moe Gibbs, who worked as a jailer in Barnes County, served time as a naval inmate at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Glen Dale Morgan, Junior, as Gibbs was known at the time, was reportedly sentenced to ten years for attempted murder in 1992, and spent time in federal prisons in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Phoenix, as well as in Kansas.

Police also say D-N-A evidence links Gibbs to a 2004 rape in Fargo.

Authorities are holding him on the Valley City murder charge pending a preliminary hear
ing set for next month.

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Originally Posted by 3 Ks

"Hang This F****ng Nigger Right Now"!! is what he should be screaming to the media!!

Morgenstern Murder Suspect Has Preliminary Hearing

...it right for gibbs to live after taking someone elses life i dont think so. they should execute him on live tv and maybe set an example to the other sickos in the world. an eye for an eye. how would you feel if this was your daughter would you still say let him go to prison for life, that to good for him. most times people in prison live better than they would out in the streets.

Public executions should be brought back. A good ol fashioned hanging in the town square. This could be a great start to deter these types of crimes. It is enough of these bleeding heart sympathize
rs, justice must prevail!!

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Gibbs Charged

Former Barnes County jailer Moe Gibbs is scheduled for a February Sixth court hearing on charges involving sexual assaults on female inmates.

Gibbs is accused of sexually abusing five female inmates at the Barnes County Jail between May and September, while he worked there.

The February hearing will take place in Valley City.

Gibbs also is scheduled for a June 19th trial in Minot on a murder charge in the death of 22-year-old college student Mindy Morgenstern of New Salem.

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North Dakota Towns Shaken by 2 Coed Killings

MINOT, N.D. — A trial about to begin in the killing of one college student and a search for the person who killed another student have shaken this city on the northern Plains.

Moe Gibbs, 34, a former jailer and campus security guard, faces a trial beginning Tuesday in the September death of Mindy Morgenstern, a student at Valley City State University in eastern North Dakota. His trial was moved to Minot, about 180 miles northwest of Valley City, because of the publicity surrounding the case.

Coincidentally, Minot police are searching for a suspect in the death of Minot State University student Anita Knutson.

"They're bringing his trial here. That's weird," said Minot State psychology major Kellie Steffan, 19, who attended high school for a time with Knutson.

"When this happens to two girls, it makes you feel really unsafe," Steffan said. "I'm definitely kind of scared."

The deaths shocked the two campuses and reminded residents of the slaying nearly four years ago of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, who had disappeared from a shopping mall parking lot in Grand Forks.

"We think Valley City should be known as a safe place, a wonderful place to be," said Doug Anderson, spokesman for Valley City State. The town west of Fargo has about 6,000 people.

Both Morgenstern, 22, and Knutson, 18, were found dead of knife wounds in their off-campus apartments - Morgenstern in Valley City on September 13, and Knutson in Minot on June 4.

Gibbs, who was arrested a week after Morgenstern was killed, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. The former boxer, former Barnes County jailer and former security guard at Valley City State lived in the same apartment complex as Morgenstern. He is being held without bail and faces up to life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted.

Authorities said Gibbs' DNA matched DNA found under Morgenstern's fingernails. They said a cloth belt was wrapped around Morgenstern's neck, and that she died of strangulation and a cut to her neck.

Gibbs also has pleaded not guilty to charges in two other cases. He is charged with sexually assaulting five female inmates while working at the Barnes County Jail, and with a 2004 rape in Fargo.

After Gibbs' arrest in Morgenstern's death, authorities found he had served 5 1/2 years for attempted murder while he was in the Navy. That led North Dakota lawmakers earlier this year to expand criminal background checks for jailers and other state workers.

The cases have made students more watchful on the campus in Minot, a city of about 38,000. Maseray Severn, 21, of Regina, Saskatchewan, a master's student, said she will be following news of the Gibbs trial and the search for Knutson's killer.

"Minot just doesn't really have these things happen," she said.

[Whitebear]

Moe Gibbs News

(NNN reader link)

Moe Gibbs

[Whitebear]

Trial in N.D. Student's Death Begins


Moe Gibbs, left, sits with his attorney, Jeff Bredahl, as he listens to the judge gives the jury instructions at the start of his murder trial in Minot, N.D., Tuesday, June 26, 2007. Gibbs, a former Barnes County jailer, is on trail for the murder of Valley City State University student Mindy Morgenstern.

MINOT, N.D. -- Prosecutors opened the trial of a former jailer and campus security guard Wednesday by saying that DNA under the fingernails of the college student he is accused of killing proves he committed the crime.
Mindy Morgenstern, a 22-year-old Valley City State University student, was found in her off-campus apartment in September strangled with her own belt, stabbed with her kitchen knives and covered with cleaning fluid.



Moe Gibbs, 34, is charged with murder in her death.