Tracey Wroten last saw her husband disco dancing in her kitchen with their four young daughters.

“The next morning, they called to tell me he’d been hurt,” Wroten said Monday in Howard Circuit Court as she cried over the autopsy picture of Correctional Officer Jeffery Wroten, 44, who was shot to death Jan. 26, 2006, while guarding an inmate at the Washington County Hospital.

Brandon Morris, 22, of Baltimore City, allegedly robbed Wroten of his weapon and shot him in the face while escaping from the hospital. Morris also took a woman hostage and carjacked a taxi at gunpoint.

Morris’ attorney Arcangelo Tuminelli said Morris stabbed himself to get out of lockup, but did not premeditate the murder — a charge that could result in the death penalty.

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But hospital nurse Rachael Yeagy, 27, testified that she saw Morris holding a gun to Wroten’s head moments before he pulled the trigger. She said the sound of a bed banging against the wall drew her attention to Morris’ room.

Yeagy said Wroten was laying on the floor begging for his life.

“[Morris] was very angry and in a deep voice ... he looked him right in his face and said, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ” Yeagy testified before retired Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Joseph Manck. Retired Howard Circuit Judge Dennis Sweeney recused himself after Morris attempted to escape his courtroom.

Tuminelli questioned the nurse’s story, citing hysteria and her inability to identify Morris in a photo lineup.

But Yeagy said she never got a good look at Morris’ face and told police she was unsure of her choice in the photo array.

Nursing assistant Dorothy Reed, 66, said she saw Morris briefly take a woman hostage and wave a gun in the air before leaving.

The attorneys debated the location of Wroten’s body, and Dr. Mark Kross, the hospital’s trauma center chief, said Wroten could not move after being shot, unless it was reflexive.

It’s unclear how Morris was unshackled from his bed, but nurses said he was permitted to use the restroom several times because of nausea.

Fast fact

Washington County prison inmate Brandon Morris was apprehended at a truck stop south of Pennsylvania and brought back to the hospital. Dr. Mark Kross would not treat his surgical wound, for fear of more violence. He examined Morris in the back of a police car on the emergency room ramp, according to Kross’ testimony.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com