In letter, Marks questions evidence, reporting in his capital murder case
By Eric E. Garcia
Killeen Daily Herald
In a four-page handwritten letter to the Temple Daily Telegram, Cedric Marks talks about his pending criminal case but doesn’t include the names of Jenna Scott or Michael Swearingin, the Temple residents he is accused of killing in 2019.
“My name is Cedric Marks, and I am currently a pre-trial detainee at the Bell County Jail accused of several very serious crimes, to all of which I have maintained my innocence,” Marks said in the letter dated Sept. 13.
Marks, who is defending himself in the death penalty case with assistance from defense attorneys, complained about media coverage of pre-trial hearings he’s involved in. Specifically, he said, reporting of his alleged victims’ injuries is inaccurate. Marks attempted to act like a lawyer with his letter.
“Either way, it is unethical and defamatory reporting, and if printed again outside of fact, will be met with legal action,” Marks said.
Marks — who escaped from law enforcement custody in Conroe for nine hours after his 2019 arrest — appears to not have had much access to television or newspaper reports while in jail. Autopsy reports for Scott and Swearingin received national media attention as numerous outlets across the country cited the violence of their deaths.
“Your reporter has consistantly (sic) falsely reported about the findings of an autopsy report, stating that it indicates one of the alleged victims was determined to have died from ‘multiple traumatic injuries,’” Marks said in the letter. “That is blantantly (sic) not true, and in fact, the report doesn’t list a single life-threatening injury.”
Autopsy reports
The complete autopsy report of Scott, 28, Marks’ ex-girlfriend, by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office revealed she had a difficult, violent death on Jan. 3, 2019. Her cause of death is listed as homicidal violence, noting Scott had multiple injuries that included contusions, broken ribs, internal bleeding and other injuries, but no drugs or evidence of drugs were found in her system, according to the toxicology report.
Scott’s autopsy showed no signs of strangulation were found, which is how her friend Swearingin, 32, died — also on Jan. 3 — according to autopsy results. Swearingin’s report also showed various contusions, cuts and abrasions on his body. The toxicology report for Swearingin also indicated no drugs were detected in his system.
Scott’s father, Jonathan Scott, previously said, “I don’t understand all of the medical terminology — but it appears that Jenna suffered a very violent death. It’s impossible for me to comprehend the level of hatred it takes to commit a crime like this.”
The autopsy report from the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner’s office showed Swearingin died from asphyxia caused by strangulation. The cause of death was listed as homicide.
Arrest affidavits
Marks, a former mixed martial arts fighter and trainer who was employed at Title Boxing Club in Killeen, is charged as well as Maya Maxwell, Marks’ girlfriend, who gave birth to a child while in custody.
Scott and Swearingin reportedly were killed by Marks at a Killeen residence, according to an arrest affidavit. Their bodies were transported to Clearview, Okla., and both were buried in a shallow grave on abandoned property, an arrest affidavit said. The bodies were discovered Jan. 14, 2019, after Maxwell reportedly admitted to Temple Police Department investigators she drove Swearingin’s car to Austin to hide it there. Maxwell was in the residence with Marks when he reportedly killed Swearingin and Scott.
According to the affidavit for Maxwell, she said Scott and Swearingin were in separate rooms in the house when Marks went into each one. She said she heard a struggle after he went into each room and then Marks came out. When she checked the rooms, Scott and Swearingin were dead, Maxwell said.
Maxwell went with Marks to Oklahoma and was there when the bodies were buried, Maxwell said in the affidavit. Marks and Maxwell, of Muskegon, Mich., were both indicted by a Bell County grand jury in connection with the Jan. 3, 2019, deaths of Swearingin and Scott.
Suspect speculates
Marks, 48, said he believes FME News Service reporter Christian Betancourt’s reporting to include autopsy report information is motivated by “his personal relationship with the alleged victim’s family.”
The reporter, who joined the Telegram in October 2021, has some contact with family members during trial proceedings. The newspaper has interviewed family members for prior reports. The late Deborah McKeon, who was named Reporter of the Year by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors (now Texas Managing Editors) in 2020, launched the Telegram’s reporting on the double homicide case.
“It is my speculation that Mr. Bettencourt (sic) puts that in his report each time to insinuate to the public that some sort of beatings caused this young woman’s death with the wide knowledge that I am in face (sic) a former MMA competitor,” Marks said. “That statement infers guilt, and is false reporting and defamatory, which also poisons potential jurors and further perpetuates the previous false accusation that I was an abuser — which all evidence in hand completely refutes. Either Mr. Bettencourt (sic) has never seen the autopsy report or he is going on hearsay from individuals motivated to have me found guilty whether through ethical or unethical means. … I am not requesting that truth be printed because that hasn’t happened once. I am simply asking that lies not be printed. Mr. Bettencourt (sic) is free to continue his clearly biased, cherry picked reporting of me, since I seem to be his pet project due to his personal relationship with the alleged victim’s family, and his assumed need to follow suit of every other desperate reporter seeking ratings for salacious subjects.”
Criminal cases
Marks also is being looked at in connection with the disappearance of his former girlfriend and mother of one of his sons, April Pease, from Bloomington, Minn., on March 17, 2009, Bloomington Deputy Chief Mike Hartley previously told the FME News Service.
Pease was 30 years old when she disappeared and has never been located. At the time she went missing, she and Marks were going through a bitter child custody battle, after which Marks was given that son’s custody, court documents said. Foul play was suspected in the disappearance in Tulsa, Okla., of Andre Ogans, Tulsa Police have said. Ogans was scheduled to testify against Marks in a Tulsa court case.
Marks — who was convicted of attempted robbery with a firearm in Tulsa County, Okla. — reportedly told Scott he killed Ogans and buried him in an Oklahoma cemetery, the Telegram previously reported. Marks wasn’t officially named as a capital murder suspect until he escaped from a prisoner transport company bringing him from Michigan to Texas on an arrest warrant for a burglary of a habitation charge with intent to commit another felony at Scott’s home on Aug. 21, 2018.
Once Marks escaped, the Temple Police Department obtained an arrest warrant for capital murder. After a 9-hour manhunt by multiple law enforcement agencies, Marks was recaptured in Conroe.
In addition to the capital murder and burglary charge, Marks remains in the Bell County Jail with bonds that total more than $2 million. He also is charged with tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair, interfering with an emergency call, making a false report to a police officer and violation of a protective order with bias/prejudice, a case that involved Scott.
Civil case comparison
In his letter, Marks compares journalism on criminal justice cases to the civil legal cases of InfoWars founder Alex Jones and actress Amber Heard, both of whom were found legally liable for defamatory or false statements each made in public.
“So, this is not any kind of threat nor attempt to intimidate or even change (a reporter’s) motivations or opinion, but this again is only a courtesy request to discontinue printing false evidence + statements that have to do with reports or my counsel,” Marks said. “If that cannot happen, then I will follow up with legal action, especially since if the false info from the autopsy report is printed again after your office has been alerted that if is plainly false, it will fall under defamation, false reporting and other subjects better placed in a suit by my attorney. If we have learned anything from Alex Jones and Amber Heard is that words matter. If justice is to be had, let it be from the truth, not from lies, misquotes and purposeful information.”
Plans for the future
Marks, who used the nickname Spider-Man for martial arts competitions and once taught self-defense classes for women, also had an issue with a printed jail mugshot taken after he was arrested in 2019 — the most recent available on the county’s jail online database.
“Be sure to thank Mr. Bettencourt (sic) for continuing to display that picture of me each time in order to show me as some deranged person, even though that pic was taken after a month in solitary with no razor or ability to access a shower, and in fact, before this nightmare began, I’ve never had facial hair nor that look in my life,” Marks said. “I thank him because when I get through this and am able to clear my name, any future MMA opponents will be intimated from that picture alone, and since I’ve long fell (sic) out of shape to compete, I’ll need all the intimidation in the ring possible. Cheers."
https://kdhnews.com/news/crime/in-le...b6ff7fa5d.html
Bookmarks