Enrique Morales

Enrique Morales is a fictional character played by NYPD officer turned actor David Zayas on the HBO drama Oz.

Character overview

Prisoner #00M871. Convicted April 6, 2000 - Murder in the second degree. Sentence: 25 years, up for parole in 15.

Morales is one of the most powerful Latinos in Oz, incarcerated for killing another man in a fight. On arriving in Oz, he assumes the position as the head of the Latino gang El Norte by having inmate Bob Rebadow kill the old leader Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez. In doing so, he becomes partners in the prison drug trade with Italians (known as the "Wiseguys") led by Chucky Pancamo and the African American gang (known as the "Homeboys") led by Simon Adebisi. Often allied with Pancamo, he is a true businessman who only makes decisions based on how to get more influence within Oz. Unlike the more reactionary members of the Latinos, Morales is calculating and deliberate. With Morales in charge, the Latinos prosper in the drug trade. Though less hotheaded, Morales is an absolutely ruthless leader with no reservations about using violence against anyone to achieve his goals.

Season 4 Part I

When Morales arrives in prison, he is assigned in the unit "Emerald City", usually referred to as Em City. Chucky Pancamo, head of the Italians, takes an immediate shine to him. Morales is not like the current heads of the Latinos. He is more modernized and shares few similarities with the current Latino heads, Raoul Hernandez and Carmen Guerra, whom he calls "Spics" and "Old School Thugs." Pancamo decides he would much rather do business with the like-minded Morales than Hernandez, and suggests to Morales that he arranges to get rid of Hernandez in order to assume control of the Latinos. In order to take over the Latinos, Morales arranges for elderly inmate Bob Rebadow to bunk with Hernandez and kill him, pleading self-defense. Morales, successful in eliminating El Cid and gaining control of the Latino faction, joins up with Pancamo and Adebisi in running the drug trade. Their next concern is new inmate Desmond Mobay who wants to enter into the drug trade. The three vote on whether to include Mobay and after the resulting tie (Morales abstained from voting) agree that Mobay must kill someone to prove his loyalty. Mobay kills a bigoted and corrupt police detective serving time in Oz named Bruno Goergen. Afterwards, a new unit manager Martin Querns tells Morales, Pancamo, and Adebisi that they can sell all the drugs they want as long as they guarantee no violence in Em City. The three of them are named trustees of Em City and arrange for a change in the demographics of Em City. Morales and Pancamo are pleased about the removal of the Aryan, Biker, Gay, and Christian inmates but later realize that all the new prisoners and prison guards are African Americans handpicked by Adebisi and Querns. When Adebisi starts pocketing a larger amount of the drug profits Morales and Pancamo decide it is time to go to war. However, Adebisi points out their slim chance of survival in the now overwhelmingly black unit. Morales and Pancamo are then transferred to Unit B.

Season 4 Part II

After Querns is fired and Adebisi is killed, the Italians and the Latinos return to Em City. Adebisi is killed in self-defense by Muslim gang leader Kareem Saïd and Morales and Pancamo find his successor, Poet, is a mediocre leader. Pancamo and Morales run things together and cut the Black inmates out of the drug trade. It goes well until new inmate Burr Redding takes charge of the Homeboys. Redding is offered a deal by Morales and Pancamo to get in on the drug trade, but Redding stubbornly refuses to work with them. Enrique than decides to frame Redding for murder. Morales does this by pretending to offer aid to some Chinese refugees who are temporarily placed in Oz. Morales convinces the Chinese refugees that Redding is racist towards Asians due to his Vietnam War experience. Morales's skillful manipulation convinces Tim McManus that Redding is racist towards Asian people. McManus tells Redding that if anything happens to the refugees, he will be held responsible. Morales traps one of the refugees, Bian Yixhue, and kills him, framing Burr for the murder. The Chinese refugees see through his plan and tell Jia Kenmin, an Asian-American serving time in Oz, about Morales's actions. Meanwhile, Redding is cleared of Yixhue's murder since Warden Glynn is unable to find hard evidence to convict him.

Another plan to take down Redding is set in action by offering a position in the drug trade to new inmate Supreme Allah if he kills Redding and takes over the Homeboys. Supreme is a former friend of Redding, but the two had a falling out. Meanwhile, Jia Kenmin is out to kill Morales as a promise to avenge the death of the Bian Yixhue. Miguel Alvarez returns to from solitary confinement and Morales tells Carmen Guerra, who wants Alvarez dead, not to do anything. Jorge Vasquez attempts to murder Alvarez, but Alvarez is armed and Vasquez dies instead. Morales and Pancamo tell Supreme Allah, who was hospitalized by Tug Daniels to put Redding's murder on hold but Supreme assures them that he will murder Redding. Supreme is unsuccessful and is poisoned by the Homeboys and dies in the cafeteria. Morales is then working on a broken elevator with Colonel Edward Galson, a marine Colonel imprisoned for rape, who attacks him. Galson has bonded to Redding through their shared military experience and attempts to kill Morales. Morales gains the upper hand and kills Galson. After a basketball tournament between the staff and prisoners, in which the staff win, Morales asks fellow Latino Carlos Martinez to cripple NBA prospect Dave Brass, a prison guard. Brass ends up with a permanent limp.

Season 5

A bus filled with family members of the inmates, including Enrique's sister Annette Osorio, crashes and everyone, except for the granddaughter of Vernon Schillinger and Father Ray Mukada, dies. Morales goes into shock and solely protests Guerra's plan to kill Miguel Alvarez. In the meantime, Chucky Pancamo and Peter Schibetta are attacked by the Aryan Brotherhood. Burr Redding asks Morales to work together with the Homeboys now that the Italians have lost their power. Morales agrees and work with the Homeboys. Morales is curious as to why his sister was visiting and asks Father Mukada about her reasons. The priest tells him to call her husband Javier, who was evidently abusing her. Morales brutally attacks Javier in the visiting room after he admits to the abuse. To compound his problems, Morales feuds with inmate Jia Kenmin, an Asian inmate whom he refers to as a "Piss Stain" throughout the season. Ryan O'Reily approaches Morales with an offer to eliminate Jia in exchange for injuring inmate Glen Shupe. Morales has the Latinos cut off one of Shupe's arms and O'Reily manipulates the COs into killing Kenmin. Things get complicated when Augustus Hill is hospitalized for a heroin overdose. Looking for someone else to blame, Poet forces Busmalis to say that Guerra sold Augustus the drugs. Furious, Burr Redding attacks Morales and the Latino/Homeboy alliance is broken. When released from the hole, Morales meets Italian Frank Urbano and admits that he is sorry for allying with someone like Redding and wants to be partners again. As a penalty, the Italians offer a 60-40 deal where the Latinos make only 40%. Morales agrees to this with the condition that they murder Burr. Augustus takes the knife and dies instead.

Season 6

Pancamo returns from the hospital and Morales lets him know that drugs are flowing freely now that Redding is in shock over Augustus Hill's death. Morales, thinking that Redding and the Homeboys are plotting revenge on them (though this was far from the truth), asks Miguel Alvarez to spy on the Homeboys in order to get back into El Norte. Alvarez refuses since he wants to make parole. Carlos Martinez dies and Dave Brass, the CO whose NBA aspirations Morales helped destroy, seeks revenge. COs Brass, Murphy, and Howell put Morales in solitary and cut both of his Achilles tendons. In the hospital, Morales is scared by Nurse Grace, and suggests to Warden Glynn to "check her background." His paranoia was justified: Nurse Grace ends up heavily sedating Morales, then suffocating him, claiming that like Carlos Martinez (who she killed as well), Morales "was a nasty man who deserved to die." After his death, Warden Glynn and Dr. Nathan confront her and discovers she had killed eight other men in prison hospital wards before coming to Oz, and she is arrested. Meanwhile, with no family left to claim his body, Morales is buried in the prison graveyard, with his wooden coffin being carried by Chico Guerra and Alvarez while McManus watches.

Murders committed

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