FORT WORTH -- James Dale Morgan knew James Layland for only about three months.
He said he's been dealing with the messy aftermath of that acquaintance for almost three years.During their brief friendship, Morgan said, Layland stole his Oregon driver's license, using it to try to pay medical bills and buy a mobile home."I got a 1099 from a casino in Oklahoma because he had won about a $5,000 gambling deal and used my ID to collect the money," Morgan said. "I worked two days to get a copy of the driver's license he used and a copy of the video they took while he was receiving the money."But on May 29, Morgan said, his stolen-identity problems reached a new low when a Fort Worth detective tracked down his ex-wife with news that Morgan had been driving the cab of a semi truck that crashed into another vehicle and killed a woman in Fort Worth."He told her that James Dale Morgan had been in an accident and arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, on two felonies," Morgan said.On Monday, Fort Worth police officials confirmed that the man arrested in connection with the crash that killed Ming-Yueh Bixler was not Morgan but Layland, 50.Sgt. Pedro Criado, a police spokesman, said the suspect had been mistakenly identified as Morgan based on the stolen Oregon driver's license, which was found in the cab that Layland had been driving. The truck, it turns out, was also stolen, Criado said.Criado said Layland was uncooperative in revealing his true identity."He said he didn't remember anything," Criado said. "He's playing the amnesia game."The crashAccording to police, Layland fled in the truck after a Fort Worth officer tried to question him about a fake $100 bill he had allegedly given a man at Terry's Food Mart in the 5200 block of Birchman Avenue.Officer T. Shelton jumped on the truck's running board and ordered Layland to stop, but the man sped off and then hit a parked car, knocking Shelton from the truck. The officer was not seriously injured.Police say Layland drove about five blocks through an alley between Birchman and Calmont avenues before hitting an SUV with three people inside and crashing into a garage.Bixler, 58, of Haltom City, died at the scene. Her husband, Dr. Glenn Bixler, 61, was critically injured. David Sedore, 39, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.Layland left and was later found hiding in a nearby garage. He was hospitalized but has been transferred to the Tarrant County Jail, where he remained Monday with bail set at $310,000.Court records show that Layland was charged Friday with aggravated assault of a public servant, evading arrest and failure to stop and render aid. Criado said Monday that Layland also faces charges of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault pending the completion of toxicology tests.'He went poof'Morgan said he and his wife, Sue, met Layland at an Alabama rest stop while traveling by mobile home."We had been walking our dogs and that's when we first started talking," Sue Morgan said.After encountering Layland at a second rest stop and realizing that they were headed to the same place, the new friends decided to convoy together, staying at the same RV parks at night and striking up a friendship."We had traveled with him from the rest stop in Alabama to Arizona and then to Oregon," Morgan said, adding that they allowed Layland to hook up his mobile home on their property in Oregon.Morgan said Layland told the couple that he was in the horse business.The Morgans said they trusted Layland so much, they asked him to take a trailer and vehicle of theirs to a man in Texas who wanted to buy them. They say he also drove Sue Morgan's sister, Mary Roberts, from Oregon to Arizona.When he left Arizona, Layland took Roberts' dog, Maggie, to keep his new puppy company. Roberts said Layland promised to return with her dog, whom she'd owned for eight years, in two weeks.They never saw him again."He went poof," Morgan said.Morgan said he discovered that items were missing from his Oregon home. The Morgans' trailer and vehicle were found about a year later abandoned in Tunica, Miss.ReunitedAfter the fatal crash in Fort Worth, police found two dogs in Layland's trailer -- the man's pug and Maggie.On Friday, the Morgans and Roberts came to Fort Worth from Arizona, where Roberts lives and the Morgans have a second home. Roberts reunited with the dog she hadn't seen in almost three years."She was 11 pounds when he took her. She's got to be 22 to 25 now," Roberts said. "All he did was feed her people food, hot dogs."Roberts said she also took the pug, which she plans to give to a friend.Morgan visited the Police Department on Monday to make sure that his name had been removed from the police report and to obtain a copy of a criminal history check verifying that he has no Fort Worth arrests or convictions."It will probably haunt me anyway because the newspaper in Oregon has already called down here about it," Morgan said. "I'm very prominent there. ... Everybody in the area knows the Morgan name. We were in the lumber business there for 40 years."Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655Twitter: @deannaboydHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
