United States of America v. Morgan Wayne Siler

Phoenix, Arizona criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Murder at United States Penitentiary

Bureau of Prisons Inmate Sentenced to Life in Prison for 2015 Murder at United States Penitentiary

Morgan Wayne Siler, 40, of Portsmouth, Virginia, pleaded guilty to Murder and Conspiracy to Murder on September 11, 2024.



On December 18, 2015, at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Siler – along with fellow inmate and co-conspirator David Hammer – killed another inmate who was housed at the facility. Siler and Hammer planned the murder in advance. The victim's cause of death was determined to be from asphyxia and blunt force injuries.



At the time of the murder, Siler was in federal custody for a 2008 conviction stemming from an assault on a Bureau of Prisons corrections officer and a 2005 conviction for a series of retail establishment robberies in Virginia. Siler's life sentences will run consecutive to the sentences already imposed in those cases. Co-conspirator Hammer passed away in 2019.



The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation. The United States Attorney's Office, District of Arizona, Tucson, handled the prosecution.