Suspect in Woodstock slaying nabbed in Tennessee

A former Arlington Heights man wanted in a grisly slaying in Woodstock was captured in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday afternoon after a chase in which he drove his car onto a sidewalk and struck two pedestrians.

Kyle W. Morgan, 24, was charged with first-degree murder earlier in the day in the Monday killing of a 28-year-old man found dead in an apartment building.

Police were releasing few details of Robin A. Burton's slaying, but court documents indicate the man, who authorities said frequently stayed at a local homeless shelter, was stabbed to death with a knife.

Woodstock Police Chief Robert Lowen said a police officer in Nashville spotted Morgan driving in the city and discovered, based on a national alert issued later in the day, that he was wanted. When the officer attempted a traffic stop, Lowen said, Morgan sped through a red light, starting a chase that ended when he struck a tree and then a building.

The status of the two pedestrians hit during the chase was not immediately available, Lowen said.

Nashville TV reported Tuesday evening that the two pedestrians were hospitalized, one in critical condition, and Morgan was taken to a hospital.

It is not clear what Morgan was doing in the Nashville area.

"We believe he has some family down south, but we're still trying to put all that together," Lowen said.

Tuesday evening, Morgan's family issued a statement offering sympathy for everyone affected by the events of the past two days.

"Words cannot express the depths of our sorrow," the statement reads. "While these past days have affected us in ways we would not wish upon any family, we can only imagine how others have been impacted.

"Kyle has struggled with serious mental illness since he was 14 years old. Our family has explored every avenue available within our means to get Kyle the help he so desperately needed and wanted. For some, however, lasting mental wellness is a lifelong struggle."

The family, according to the statement, has retained legal counsel to represent Morgan.

Woodstock police officers will travel to Nashville within the next two days to retrieve Morgan and bring him to the McHenry County jail where he will be held without bond.

Morgan, whose last known address was Woodstock, is a self-described artist and musician who, on his Web site, shows an admiration for serial killers, displays interest in females in bondage and has a history of vandalism.

Police announced they were looking for him early Tuesday morning in Burton's slaying at the Prairie View Apartment Complex on the 300 block of Leah Lane in Woodstock.

A maintenance worker discovered Burton dead about 4:45 p.m. Monday in an apartment leased by an acquaintance. Lantz said the autopsy is complete, but at the request of Woodstock police the results and cause of death would not be released until Wednesday.

Morgan, on his MySpace page, describes himself as "Thrill Kill Kyle," a resident of Arlington Heights and Lake Geneva who is "down with Satan."

The site features photographs of notorious serial killers interspersed with images of women in various states of bondage. He claims to have punched four police officers in his life, breaking one's nose, and states he has pen pal relationships with several serial killers.

A second Web site catalogs his art work, primarily Jackson Pollock-inspired abstracts, along with his education background that includes a year at Columbia College in Chicago.

His criminal record in McHenry County is limited. He currently is wanted on a failure to appear warrant stemming from a misdemeanor criminal damage to property charge alleging he threw a brick through the window of a Crystal Lake auto body shop.

In 2003 when he was 18, he was arrested after a vandalism spree in downtown Arlington Heights that did at least $7,000 in damage to a half-dozen businesses and five automobiles. He was charged with two felony and nine misdemeanor charges of criminal damage to property and faced misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and battery to a police officer, authorities said.

In a bond hearing, Morgan sobbed when mother, father and grandfather were allowed to join his defense attorney in front of the judge in the Rolling Meadows courthouse. His father, Dean Morgan, said the family had lived in Arlington Heights for at least 20 years.

Morgan was released on bond without posting any cash over the objections of the prosecutor after his father told of his son's alcohol abuse since his early teens and of his manic depression. His attorney promised that Morgan would enter an alcohol-abuse program that same day and his father promised that his son would reimburse property owners for every penny of damage.

Cook County court records show he later pleaded guilty to vandalism and was sentenced in June 2004 to two years of conditional release and ordered to pay restitution. Court records also show a Rolling Meadows judge sentenced him in 2004 to two weeks in Cook County jail. A battery charge last year was later dropped, according to Rolling Meadows court records.

Arrest: Authorities retrieving suspect from Nashville