A lawyer for Stephen Morgan, who allegedly shot dead 21-year-old Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich, says his client's $15 million bail is excessive, the Hartford Courant reported.
Richard R. Brown, Morgan's defense lawyer, said he will argue at his clients next hearing on May 19 to have the bail lowered.
"This is a person that turned himself in when he didn't have to," Brown said.
During a short court appearance for Morgan's arraignment in Superior Court Friday, a judge increased his bail from $10 million to $15 million.
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Morgan, 29, was charged with one count of murder in the killing of Justin-Jinich — whom he allegedly shot dead on Wednesday while she was working at a bookstore cafe near campus.
Police allege Morgan targeted Justin-Jinich because she was Jewish. Brown said Morgan denies targeting "the Wesleyan campus or anyone else."
Justin-Jinich, of Timnath, Colorado, came from a Jewish family, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. The pair met two years ago during a summer program at New York University.
Morgan was arrested Thursday night after he saw his photo in a newspaper and asked a convenience store clerk to call police.
Officers found him standing outside the store, 10 miles from where a man wearing a wig opened fire on Justin-Jinich about 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Authorities in New York said Morgan and Justin-Jinich had known each other since at least 2007, when Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint against him while they were enrolled in a summer class at New York University.
Click here to read more on this story from the Heartford Courant.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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