Marshall sentenced to life in prison in father’s death
A Cape Coral man was recently sentenced for killing his father and dismembering the body.
On Nov. 21, Matthew Christopher Marshall, 34, of 1787 Four Mile Cove Parkway, Apt. 435, was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder dangerous depraved without premeditation in the death of his father, James Richard Marshall, 58, also of 1787 Four Mile Cove Parkway, Apt. 435.
Assistant State Attorneys Stephanie Russell and Andreas Gardiner prosecuted the case.
“The judge went ahead and gave him a life sentence,” Gardiner said on Tuesday.
In addition, Marshall was sentenced to five years in prison for evidence destroying tamper with or fabricate physical and 15 years in prison for crimes against a person abuse dead human body.
“Which was the maximum he could have received for that count,” he said of the abuse.
Gardiner noted that all three sentences will run concurrent.
“I think the judge said it best when he said this was one of the most gruesome murders that he had come across,” he said, adding that he did not believe there was any other outcome for the case.
Marshall did not secure an attorney for his trial, nor his sentencing.
“He did represent himself,” Gardiner said.
On Oct. 13, a Lee County jury found Marshall guilty of all three charges after deliberating for nearly three hours, the State Attorney’s Office had previously reported. The trial had lasted for three days.
“It was a circumstantial case,” he said.
On Feb. 18, Cape police were contacted to conduct a welfare check on Marshall’s father. The caller, a business associate who lived in Miami, stated that he had not been able to reach James Marshall.
Cape police later upgraded the case from a missing persons to an active homicide investigation. Officials reported that he had died of foul play; his dismembered body had been recovered.
According to a police report, the day before his father’s business associate contacted police about a welfare check, Marshall attempted to use one of his father’s cards to pay a tab at a bar.
A manager at BackStreets Sports Bar, at 915 S.E. 47th Terrace, told police that a man left without paying his $50.53 bill on Feb. 17. The customer tried to pay the bill with a Suncoast Credit Union card, but the card was declined. The manager reported that the name on the card was “James Marshall.”
The manager told the customer that the card had been declined and asked for identification.
The report states that the man identified himself as Matt Marshall. Since his name was not the name listed on the card, the manager asked for a different form of payment. Marshall became upset and tried to come up with a different way to pay. When he could not, Marshall left BackStreets without paying.
While Marshall was at the Cape Police Department on Feb. 22 for an “unrelated incident,” it was determined that he was the man who identified himself at BackStreets and left without paying his bill. He was taken into custody and transported to the Lee County Jail for booking on a fraud charge.
Marshall was later charged in the death and dismemberment of his father.