Andrew McGarrigel was always there for his family.
When Lois McGarrigel started losing her hair from cancer treatments, her son shaved his head.
Through his mother’s two knee replacements and one new hip, Andrew McGarrigel was there.
But when she got her second hip replacement, Lois McGarrigel didn’t have the older of her two sons by her side “because his life was abruptly taken from us,” she said Friday, at the sentencing of the man who took that life.
Johnny Morgan, 36, of Camden, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated manslaughter.
Superior Court Judge John Rauh sentenced Morgan to 15 years in prison, in accordance with the plea agreement. He would have to serve at least 85 percent under the No Early Release Act.
He was also given several sentences for other crimes, including possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He also was sentenced on a probation violation since he was on Drug Court at the time of the killing.
But all of the terms were concurrent with the 15 years, adding no extra time to the total.
Three weeks after the Nov. 3, 2017, fight in which Morgan admitted punching McGarrigel, the 53-year-old Atlantic City man died.
“Andrew laid in the hospital on life support for 20 days before he died,” Lois McGarrigel told the court, before addressing Morgan. “I’m a Christian woman, but I can’t find it in my heart to forgive you.”
She said her son’s injuries were too extensive to be caused by a punch.
“I believe you hit him in the head with a baseball bat — as previously reported — or the butt of your gun,” she said.
Andrew McGarrigel grew up in Brigantine and was a member of the Atlantic City High School crew team and the city’s Beach Patrol.
He would travel in his life, but always return home. He was living in Atlantic City at the time of his death.
At the sentencing, McGarrigel's picture sat on an easel nearby. It usually hangs in his parents’ living room.
“I talk to it every day and tell him how much I love and miss him,” his mother said. "Losing a child is the most traumatic thing anyone can go through. You never get over it. You just have this empty hole in your heart."
