TMP Reports
Posted: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 4:26 pm

One man possibly burned to his death after smoking while using oxygen at his Naylor Avenue apartment, Murfreesboro Police reported.

Friend Allen Gudelis found the body of John Keith Morgan, 55, inside his apartment, Officer Michael D. Yates reported.

“It appeared that Mr. Morgan was smoking while using his oxygen,” Yates reported. “Apparently, the oxygen ignited and burned Mr. Morgan to death.”

The time and day of the fire was unknown, the officer reported. Gudelis has not been in contact with Morgan in a week.

Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader said Assistant Fire Marshal Carl Peas is investigating the fire. Investigators hope an autopsy will give the cause of death.

"Preliminary results of the autopsy did not reveal any evidence oftrauma to the body other than from fire," Swader reported Wednesday."There were no signs of forced trauma to the body, such as bullet wounds, knife wounds, etc."

In an unrelated case, Edgar B. Garcia, 23, of Hancock Street was charged with aggravated assault Saturday by Detective Tannas Knox.

Victim Gabriel Rodriguez accused Garcia, his girlfriend’s former boyfriend, of meeting him to talk in his vehicle parked at Kroger on Lascassas Pike. They got into an argument.

The suspect “opened the door and stabbed him with a long knife in the left side of the torso area,” Knox reported. Garcia apparently stabbed the back tire of Rodriguez’s vehicle.

Knox interviewed Garcia who became angry with Rodriguez because he didn’t have contact with his ex-girlfriend’s child. He gave a statement about the stabbing. No weapon was found.

Garcia was charged and booked into Rutherford County Adult Detention Center. A hearing is set Feb. 11 in General Sessions Court.