A woman who, according to her defense attorneys, was suffering from a severe mental illness when in November 2020 she shot her mother to death in south Fort Worth on Monday pleaded guilty to murder.
When she killed her mother, Izehi Enabulele was under the misguided belief that her mother had been abusing a grandchild, according to the attorneys.
Enabulele was sentenced in the 396th District Court in Tarrant County to 18 years in prison under an agreement with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Patsy Morgan, who was 53, was in bed when Enabulele shot her with a pistol.
Enabulele asked to be handcuffed when police arrived at the homicide scene, a house in the 8400 block of Orleans Way, but never told officers what had happened, according to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Fort Worth Police Department Homicide Unit Detective Tom O’Brien. Enabulele, who was 26 when the killing occurred, is 30.
A person who is described in the affidavit as Izehi Enabulele’s sister told O’Brien that she was in her room watching a movie when she heard a gunshot. Police redacted the person’s name from the document.
When she opened the door to her room, she saw Izehi walking upstairs with a handgun in her hand. The suspect’s sister told O’Brien that Izehi told her that she shot their mom.
The suspect’s sister said that she took the gun from Izehi, went to check on Morgan and found her with blood coming from her head and unresponsive.
After Morgan was shot but before police arrived, Izehi asked her sister to take her somewhere so she “didn’t get in trouble by the police.”
Izehi said that “she shot their mother because she did it for their father,” according to her sister’s account that is described in the affidavit.
Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Matt Rivers prosecuted the case.
Defense attorneys Christy Jack and Audrey Hatcher were appointed to represent Enabulele.
At the time of the killing, Enabulele was delusional and truly believed she was protecting her son, Jack and Hatcher wrote in response to a reporter’s inquiry.
“She was trapped inside her own mind,” the defense attorneys wrote.
“Our legislature enacted a wide range of punishment for good reason. Plea negotiations and agreements are based upon years of experience and witnessing first-hand what juries will do when confronted with mental illness in the commission of a crime.”
If Enabulele had at trial been found guilty of murder and elected to have a jury assess punishment, the panel would have been directed to deliberate on a prison term of five to 99 years or life.
“Izehi was a single mother and a former teacher. She also had no previous criminal history. She has always wanted to accept responsibility and never wished to put the family through a trial,” Jack and Hatcher wrote. “There is no one that blames her more than she blames herself.”