Chester County woman faces trial in husband's beating death

To hear detectives tell it, Morgan Marie Mengel just couldn't wait to find out if her husband was dead after her young lover put poison in his lemon Snapple.

"He drinkin' it?" Mengel texted to Stephen M. Shappell at 10:08 a.m. June 17.

"Ya kinda, really just waiting for him to bend over I have shovel in my hand haha," Shappell replied at 10:11.

That testimony Thursday - which a prosecutor later called "a chilling play-by-play account of the murder" - riveted a Chester County courtroom, where the 34-year-old West Goshen Township woman was held for trial on charges that she conspired with Shappell, 21, to execute her husband.

Mengel sat with her head down as detectives detailed the text messages she allegedly shared with Shappell in a grisly plot to poison and bludgeon Kevin Mengel Jr., 33.

Shappell, who was returned to Pennsylvania this month after he fled to Colorado, waived his preliminary hearing earlier in the day.

West Goshen Detective David S. Maurer testified that Morgan Mengel had told him that she wanted to avoid a "messy divorce" and custody battle over the couple's three children.

Maurer said she had made her admission after she was confronted with dozens of incriminating texts, including several that professed love for Shappell and repeatedly checked to make sure he would not "chicken out."

The case began June 20 when Kevin Mengel's mother reported him missing, testified Maurer, one of two witnesses presented by First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Carmody and Assistant District Attorney Deborah S. Ryan.

In initial interviews, Morgan Mengel denied knowing her husband's whereabouts and denied a romantic relationship with Shappell, who worked for the Mengels' landscaping company, he said.

Maurer testified that Mengel had shown police a text that she said her husband sent her June 18, the day after he was killed, indicating that "he had had enough, he was leaving, and she could take the business . . .."

Assistant Public Defender Kathleen A. Grimes objected to the texts. But they were admitted because Maurer testified that they had been shown to Mengel, who authenticated them.

Maurer said Mengel also had used her husband's Facebook password to make it seem that he was "still alive" by altering his status.

"She panicked and was trying to buy some time to deal with his situation," Maurer testified.

Maurer testified that Morgan Mengel had admitted the affair only after learning that Shappell had acknowledged it. She also acknowledged putting poison in her husband's Snapple "to numb his central nervous system so they could kill him," Maurer said.

Text messages introduced by West Goshen Detective Darren Sedlak said that on the evening of June 16, Shappell boiled granular nicotine to produce a poison that was put into the Snapple bottle, a formula he read about online.

Maurer testified that on June 26, police used cadaver dogs to find Kevin Mengel's body. Officers found it buried with rubber gloves and a broken shovel in woods behind Marple Newtown High School in Newtown Township, Delaware County.

Kevin Mengel's relatives declined to comment on the hearing. They said they were focused on his children, ages 6, 10, and 12, and had set up a trust fund for them through Penn Liberty Bank. The children's initials formed the name of Mengel's landscaping company: MKB Property Maintenance.

As Mengel, wearing shackles and a navy bulletproof vest, left the District Court, her mother shouted, "I love you, Morgan."

After the hearing, Carmody was asked whether the death penalty had been considered.

He said Pennsylvania law required an aggravating factor. Even though the defendant's alleged behavior in committing and attempting to cover up the crime might seem to warrant that punishment, "heartlessness is not an aggravating factor," he said.

June 16, the day before the slaying

11:39 a.m., Stephen M. Shappell to Morgan Marie Mengel: O joy, just 24 more hrs babe.

12:18 p.m., Mengel to Shappell: Less than 24 hours babe. He leave yet.

12:32, Mengel to Shappell: God this is almost unbearable.

12:33, Shappell to Mengel: It really is. Its gonna be the longest 24 hrs of my life.

12:42, Mengel to Shappell: Just wait babe soon enough.

12:43, Shappell to Mengel: An I wanna get outta here I got a hole to dig ha.

June 17, the day of the slaying

6:22 a.m., Mengel to Shappell: We ready?

6:23, Shappell to Mengel: Yep at the shop now, al [another employee] just pulled in.

6:24, Mengel to Shappell: K im jumping in shower. Ur not gona chicken out?

7:32, Mengel to Shappell: OK I told him i left his snapple there. Make sure u shake it.

10:08, Mengel to Shappell: He drinkin' it?

10:11, Shappell to Mengel: Ya kinda, really just waiting for him to bend over I have shovel in my hand haha.

10:33, Mengel to Shappell: U backin out?

10:39, Shappell to Mengel: It's done get up here now.

10:39, Mengel to Shappell: Seriously?

10:42, Mengel to Shappell: Answer me.

10:42, Shappell to Mengel: Dead serious.

10:42, Shappell to Mengel: Get up here now!

10:43, Mengel to Shappell: On my way. Pulse?

EndText