Melbourne model Adau Mornyang facing hefty US prison term after mid-air meltdown
Melbourne model Adau Mornyang faces up to 21 years behind bars for attacking a flight attendant after losing her bid for a new trial.
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Melbourne model Adau Mornyang, convicted in California of assaulting a flight attendant on a flight to Los Angeles, has lost her bid for a new trial.
Mornyang faces up to 21 years in US prison when she is sentenced in an LA court next month.
“Defendant’s motion for dismissal of the indictment or, in the alternative, a new trial is denied,” US District Court judge Cormac Carney ruled.
The court heard how Mornyang, a 25-year-old from Melbourne, ordered “several glasses of wine” on the January 21 United Airlines flight from Melbourne to LA, was cut off from drinking more, yelled obscenities and racial slurs, slapped the flight attendant and had to be handcuffed by an air marshal and held at the rear of the plane.
The court was told passengers first began complaining about Mornyang’s “erratic behaviour” about 8.5 hours into the flight, and when flight attendant Romeo Gutierrez tried to calm her down, she put her left index finger near his face and suddenly “smacked” him.
An air marshal escorted her to the back of the plane and put her in handcuffs. The judge noted about two hours before the plane landed in LA, Mornyang was allowed to use the bathroom, but she stayed inside for 45 minutes and would not leave.
Marshals had to carry her out, and “while they held her arms and legs, she allegedly kicked” one of the marshals in the chest, the court heard.
A US air marshal described the incident as“the most severe he has encountered in his ten years” on the job.
A Los Angeles jury in March found Mornyang guilty of a felony charge of interference with a flight crew member and a misdemeanour count of assault.
On the eve of Mornyang’s sentencing, her lawyers argued the judicial district that includes LA was not the proper venue for her trial, but Judge Carney rejected that.
“Because defendant’s interfering conduct began before the slap and continued over the remainder of the flight, venue was proper in the Central District of California,” the judge ruled.
The model’s legal team also argued prosecutors “did not lay proper foundation” to play “an allegedly prejudicial audio recording” of Mornyang at the trial. The recording was made by another passenger.
Judge Carney ruled testimony identifying the audio recording met the “minimum requirements for authentication”.
The Sudanese-born model has enjoyed significant modelling success since moving to Australia as a refugee at the age of 10, including serving as a global campaign face for Sephora in 2016, a Miss World Victorian finalist in 2017 and Miss World Australia finalist and recently walked the runway at New York Fashion Week.
In March,
Mornyang told News Corp in March she had not attacked anyone and described the episode as “an ordeal” that she did not remember after having mixed prescription drugs with alcohol to sleep during the flight.
“All I remember was waking up after sleeping for eight hours.”
“I was so confused and begging and pleading for them to tell me what I did. I was ignored, I was in and out of consciousness, and was later locked up in federal prison still with no memory of what I was arrested for. This whole alleged slapping is a big shock to me and I cry every night wondering why I have no memory of it. How I could of done it while asleep.”
“ I was not intoxicated because I had only two glasses of wine during dinner service, requested a seat move and slept for what I believe to have been eight hours, just to wake up five hours and five minutes before landing to an arrest.
“Did I take my Prozac and oxycodone before the flight? Yes I did. But I was not drunk before boarding.”