Muskegon woman charged with hiding double murder suspect has case dismissed
MUSKEGON, MI — A Muskegon woman who was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, harboring a double murder suspect has had the case against her dismissed.
Ginell McDonough, 38, had been charged with hiding her now ex-husband, former mixed martial arts fighter Cedric “Spiderman” Marks, while he had a warrant out in Texas.
McDonough initially pleaded guilty to a charge of harboring a fugitive on Jan. 31. After the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to dismiss her charges, McDonough withdrew her plea during her sentencing hearing on Nov. 19.
Her case was officially dismissed Nov. 24, according to court records.
McDonough’s defense attorney, Michael Oakes, credited the prosecutor’s office in being open to looking at all the facts prior to McDonough’s sentencing and agreeing that his client was also a victim of Marks’.
Oakes said McDonough, a staff sergeant with the U.S. Army, knew Marks had a warrant out at the time he was arrested, but it was for a breaking and entering case and he had told her he was attempting to get it taken care of.
“She thought he had an outstanding warrant that had nothing to do with the killings,” Oakes said. “In her mind, this was her husband and he had gone down (to Texas) to try to take care of it and he told her they told him to come back the next month and it would be handled.”
Oakes said the entire situation has been an embarrassing one for his client, who has since had her marriage to Marks annulled. Once the matter began being investigated, Oakes said, it was learned that Marks was married to another woman before he married McDonough and that he had never gotten a divorce.
Marks also had a girlfriend, Maya Maxwell of Muskegon, who like him, is awaiting trial in the January 2019 double killing of Marks’ ex-girlfriend Jenna Scott and Scott’s boyfriend, Michael Swearingen. Scott and Swearingen are believed to have been killed in Killeen, Texas on or around Jan. 4. They were found Jan. 15 buried in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma.
Marks was reported to have been at McDonough’s home before he left with Maxwell on Jan. 1, 2019 for Texas. The two returned on Jan. 5, one day after Scott was last seen. McDonough is said to have let both Marks and Maxwell stay in her home from Jan. 5-8.
Marks and Maxwell were arrested Jan. 8, 2019 in Grandville.
Marks is also a person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of a Bloomington, Minnesota, woman, with whom Marks had a child, several media outlets have reported.
Oakes said there were a lot of red flags regarding Marks’ behavior, but his client blindly trusted him.
“He’s a very manipulative person, and she was just another victim of his,” Oakes said. “It was pretty unfortunate how these events went down but my client has always been forthcoming in dealing with authorities. I think the outcome is a justified outcome taking the ordeal as a whole.”
https://archive.is/1JGkL#selection-1383.0-1519.285
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