Man pleads guilty in 2014 attack inside Greyhound bus
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A California man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to assault charges related to his 2014 alleged attack inside a Greyhound bus that forced the vehicle off the road west of Phoenix, injuring more than two dozen passengers, court officials said.
Maquel Morris, 27, entered the guilty plea to three counts of aggravated assault during a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court. He had faced multiple counts of endangerment and aggravated assault.
Morris, from Los Angeles, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24. His attorney declined comment on the plea on Wednesday.
Morris was arrested in January 2014 after authorities said he got out of his seat and attacked the driver of the Dallas-bound bus and tried to roll the vehicle near Tonopah, about 50 miles (80 km) miles from Phoenix.
Other passengers helped the driver regain control from Morris and stop the bus six feet from on-coming traffic on Interstate 10.
The bus, which was traveling from Los Angeles with a stop in Phoenix, was carrying more than 40 people, of whom 26 were reported injured during the incident, police said.
Authorities said they believed that Morris was “high on a lot of drugs” at the time, and he later admitted in a jailhouse interview that he had used methamphetamine days before.
(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Lambert)
