Pottstown man convicted of third-degree murder for killing his ex’s boyfriend during custody exchange

A Pottstown man has been convicted of third-degree murder for fatally shooting his ex’s boyfriend during a custody exchange of his daughter last summer.

Kevin Morgan, 35, was also found guilty of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for firing in the direction of a car in which his ex, their daughter, and her son were sitting.

Jurors, after nearly four hours of deliberation, acquitted Morgan of the more serious charge of first-degree murder in the death of Derek Mayo, 38, during a tense confrontation June 27.

Assistant District Attorney Allison Ruth had told jurors that a guilty verdict on a charge of first-degree murder was more appropriate, saying Morgan deliberately “executed” Mayo, who was unarmed, after goading him into a fight.

Jurors, however, seemed somewhat swayed by the theory of the case presented by Morgan’s attorney, James Han, who said Morgan had acted in self-defense and made a split-second decision to shoot Mayo “in the heat of passion.”

Han declined to comment after the verdict was read in a Norristown courtroom Thursday.

Ruth said she respected the jury’s decision and would ask for a lengthy prison term for Morgan at sentencing.

Mayo, she said, “did nothing and now his family must go on without him. It’s tragic.”

Morgan, 35, shot Mayo, 38, once in the chest with a 9mm handgun during the confrontation outside Morgan’s home on May Street in Pottstown on June 27. He was taken by medics to Pottstown Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead — the bullet, according to evidence presented at trial, punctured his lung.

Mayo had accompanied his girlfriend, Kelsay Love-Sheller, to pick up her 13-year-old daughter, Peyton, from her father’s home. He and Morgan got into an argument in the street, after the teen got into her mother’s car.

Morgan and Mayo had a long history of aggressive interactions, according to Han, all stemming from disputes over custody of Peyton. Mayo threatened to attack Morgan multiple times, as recently as two weeks before the shooting, telling him he would attack him “on sight.”

“Things happen for a reason. There is always a cause and effect,” said Han, urging jurors to convict Morgan of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Mayo lost his life. But he chose to get out of the car and escalate the situation.”

But Ruth said Mayo’s earlier threats to Morgan had nothing to do with the shooting. And, she said, they were by no means justification for killing him.

“What was so provoking? That Derek Mayo came with his girlfriend to pick up her child?” Ruth said. “Should he be dead for that?”

Morgan, who took the stand in his own defense, said he was not expecting to see Mayo sitting in Love-Sheller’s car and became upset. Given the earlier threats Mayo had made against him, he said he did not want him to know where he lived.

He called Mayo a derogatory name, and prevented his daughter from closing her car door as he argued with Mayo and Love-Sheller. The argument was so heated that Morgan’s wife, Julise, came outside in an attempt to break up the fight, according to her testimony.

As Love-Sheller began to drive away, Morgan continued to scream at Mayo and spit at the car, according to Ruth. Mayo demanded Love-Sheller stop the car so he could get out.

He did so, yelling to Morgan “Is this what you want?” in an apparent reference to a fight, according to multiple witnesses. Seconds later, Morgan raised his gun and fired once.

Morgan and his wife testified that he shot Mayo because he had lunged toward them while grabbing at his waistband. That gesture, both said, made them believe Mayo was reaching for a gun.

“I was just thinking about my 6-month-pregnant wife and our baby and them not being here,” Morgan said. “Or me losing my life.”

In 2019, Mayo and Morgan had gotten into a violent dispute outside of Love-Sheller’s apartment in Downingtown, during which Morgan spat at Mayo as he goaded him into a fight. Cell phone video of that incident was played during the trial.

Prosecutors drew comparisons between that attack and Morgan’s behavior during the shooting of Mayo. But Han said investigators had withheld important context, including that moments before the events in the video, Mayo and another man had beaten Morgan and stolen his backpack.

Morgan said that man was a friend of James J.E. Potts Jr., a man convicted of killing a longtime friend of Morgan’s during an ambush in West Chester in 2012. Morgan testified in the trial that led to Potts’ conviction of first-degree murder.

Mayo, according to text messages shown during the trial, had called Morgan a “rat” and told him he should never have been born, sending him a screenshot of an Inquirer article about the case.