Friends, family say emotional goodbyes to slain 10-year-old

The father took one look at his slain daughter in the casket, then started crying uncontrollably before staggering out of the funeral parlor and into the bright light outside, where he started heaving heavily - stopping just short of throwing up in a nearby bush.

It was the first and only public viewing of Jade Morris on Friday at Palm South Jones Mortuary .

At the visitation, hundreds of family members and friends said their goodbyes to the 10-year-old girl, who police say was fatally stabbed four days before Christmas. Brenda Jean Stokes, 50, a Clarksdale, Miss., native, now stands accused of murder in Jade's death.

"Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel ... she didn't want any of those things. She wasn't into brand names like us," said Philip Morris, 35, the father, dressed in a ball cap and high-top sneakers, searching for the words to describe his only child.

"But if she ever wanted them," he added, "we would have given them to her. We loved her. She was our angel."

Jade was "a girlie girl," family members said. She was the type of girl who loved to dress other girls up in computer models and who, when ever offered a piece of candy, would say, "No, that's not good for me."

She loved the color red. Her favorite song was Larry Graham's "One in a Million."

And she was fascinated with butterflies, which was probably why, dressed in a red sweater in the casket, she had decorations of butterflies all around her.

Some family members believe Stokes, a blackjack dealer at the Bellagio, killed Jade in a jealous rage over the girl's father, who they say Stokes suspected was having an affair. They point to a Bellagio blackjack dealer, Joyce Rhone, 44.

After Jade was slain in the early evening hours of Dec. 21, Stokes paid Rhone a visit a few hours later at the Bellagio, where police say she slashed her face with a pair of razor blades - another crime for which Stokes has been charged.

"Put this woman away forever," said Jade's mother, Tejuana Reeves, 41, as she stood outside the funeral parlor. "My baby should not be in a box."

Reeves said she pretty much raised Jade on her own, with occasional help from the father and a great deal of help from both sets of grandparents. She said the only reason she let Stokes into her daughter's life is because Stokes was going to be the "stepmom" because she was engaged to Jade's father.

But she said she never had a clue that Stokes was capable of harming her girl - and that if she ever had any inkling Stokes was a violent woman, she never would have let her near Jade.

As for any sort of relationship existing between the father and Rhone, the father denied it outside the funeral parlor.

"That was her friend. She's got her own set of friends, and I have mine," said Morris, who previously worked at the Flying J truck stop in Hardin, Mont., a small town outside of Billings where he was in charge of the cash register and gasoline pumps. He said Thursday that he is unemployed.

This is not the first time that Jade's father has suffered heartbreak and loss.

He and Tejuana had a baby boy, Jason, who died at birth. He was cremated, and the same funeral parlor held the services.

Asked when his baby boy died, Morris said he couldn't recall the exact date.

"It was around the 2006 NBA All-Star Game," Morris said.

Brenda Morris, Jade's grandmother, was visibly upset at the idea that Stokes might plead insanity.

"I want her to pay," said Brenda Morris, 58. "I don't want any of this 'I was crazy' stuff.' "

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Bread of Life, 2721 Coran Lane in Las Vegas.

Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.