MMA Fighter Wanted For Killings Captured After Escaping Van
Update 9:30 p.m.- MMA fighter, Cedric Marks, suspected of killing two people, including an ex-girlfriend, was captured Sunday after escaping from a prisoner transport van in Conroe, authorities said.
MMA Fighter Recaptured After Escape From Prison Van Said He Had 'Nothing To Do With' Double Murder
CONROE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — An MMA fighter, suspected of killing an ex-girlfriend and a friend of hers, escaped Sunday from a prisoner transport van, authorities said.
Police said in a news conference, Cedric Marks escaped from a private prison transport van during a stop at a McDonald's in Conroe. His shirt was later found.
McGinnis said murder warrants were issued Sunday for Marks in December's killings of an ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, and a friend of hers, Michael Swearingin, who disappeared Jan. 4 and were found buried in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma, Jan. 15.
Authorities said Marks is "extremely dangerous" and that anyone who sees him should immediately call 911.
Marks was arrested in Michigan in December on a Bell County, Texas, charge alleging that on Aug. 21, he broke into Scott's home in Temple. Police said he escaped while being transferred to Bell County to face that charge.
Scott requested a protective order against Marks last July, accusing him of choking her unconscious twice, Temple television station KCEN reported.
"Each time he allowed me to regain consciousness and then he choked me out again," Scott said in an affidavit.
The protective order request was denied.
Scott also reported to police that Marks had broken into her home in August while her 9-year-old daughter was there. She said he took her cellphone to stop her from calling 911.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office's initial tweet about the escape said Marks was facing three "pending murder charges," but it didn't immediately respond to requests for further information about those charges.
Police in Bloomington, Minnesota, said Marks remains a person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of April Pease, who was the mother of one of his children. The two were involved in a fierce custody dispute in Washington state and Pease, who had a drug problem, went to live in a Bloomington women's shelter because she said she was afraid of Marks. Like Scott, Pease alleged that Marks had choked her unconscious on more than one occasion, according to a court custody investigator. Pease went missing in March 2009 and Marks got custody of their son.
Pease's mother, Dottie Pease, said she had believed her daughter might have had a drug relapse, but given the developments in Texas, she thought it was possible that Marks might have had something to do with her daughter's disappearance.
Two women were arrested in Michigan on charges related to Marks.
Maya Maxwell is charged with evidence tampering and is jailed in Bell County, Texas, on $150,000 bond. According to an arrest affidavit, she told detectives that she drove Swearingin's vehicle to Austin in an attempt to hide it from investigators. It was found abandoned in the city Jan. 6.
Ginell McDonough, who is Marks' wife and the mother of two of his two children, is jailed in Muskegon County, Michigan, on an obstruction of justice charge. She is accused of allowing Marks and Maxwell to stay in her home between Jan. 5 and Jan. 9.
Jail records don't list an attorney for either woman.
Marks compiled a record of 31-28-0 during his professional MMA career, which began in 1999, according to mixedmartialarts.com . His last fight was in September.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)