MI vs Lamont Marshall

[awakening2lite]

http://www.wzzm13.com/genthumb.ashx?e=3&h=240&w=320&i=/assetpool/images/07822151237_Marshall.jpg

33-year-old murder trial starts today in Grand Rapids

The trial of a man charged with the 1975 murder of a woman in Grand Rapids' Heritage Hill is now underway.

Opening arguments were this morning in the trial of Lamont Marshall. Prosecutors say Marshall murdered Laurel Jean Ellis in her home some 33 year ago.

A piece of evidence saved from the murder scene may be key in this case, now that DNA testing is much more advanced.

Marshall has been in prison since 1983, when he was convicted of lying to a grand jury about another murder. Police say Marshall may also be responsible for four other Grand Rapids murders between 1970 and 1980.

source: http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=94259&catid=14

[awakening2lite]

Prosecutors point to pattern of brutality in Marshall murder case

GRAND RAPIDS -- The decades-ago attacks, targeting young, attractive women living in Heritage Hill, were particularly brutal.
Press Photo/Jon M. BrouwerCarl Novak reacts after looking at crime scene pictures of Laurel Jean Ellis, dead on her living room floor. Attorney Helen Brinkman, right, is handling the prosecution.

College student Laurel Jean Ellis, killed in May 1975, suffered 60 stabs -- 45 to her head and face -- and was strangled. Ida Mae Luchie was bludgeoned in November 1977 with a stairway spindle in the laundry room of her apartment. In 1980, a woman, resting on her couch after a softball game, suffered a blow to the throat after a man broke in.

He stuffed a macrame belt in her mouth and tried to rape her. Then, she heard and felt a knife plunge into her neck with such force the blade broke from the handle. The attacker just stared, as if he was watching to see if she would die before he fled.

Paralyzed, but with use of one arm, she dragged herself to the telephone, grabbed the cord with her teeth and dialed "O" for operator.

Doctors could not get the knife out, it was in so deep. It took a hospital janitor, standing over the woman with pliers, while four others held her down for leverage, to finally remove the blade. She survived in what a prosecutor called a miraculous recovery.

Her attacker, Lamont Marshall, 53, who lived near the victims, was sentenced to life in prison.

This week, Marshall, long an unindicted suspect in the six killings that began in 1970 and ended 10 years later, is on trial in Ellis' killing after a cold-case team linked his DNA to a drop of blood found on a tile near the door of her apartment.

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Helen Brinkman, in her opening statement Tuesday, used the two killings and attempted killing to show a pattern of brutality that binds the crimes.
Lamont Marshall

"This is his modus operandi," she told jurors. "No way this is just a coincidence, your blood just happened to be at the scene."

Defense attorney Michael Liquigli said the drop of blood did not prove he was involved in the killing. His client's blood was not found anywhere else in the apartment.

"The evidence in this case is one drop of blood, outside the inner door of Ms. Ellis' apartment. There is none of his blood in the apartment. ... What did he do, spontaneously start bleeding on his way out the door?"

Testimony was resumed this morning before a jury equally divided between men and women in Kent County Circuit Judge George Buth's courtroom.

Ellis, 20, was killed May 22, 1975, in her Heritage Hills apartment at 627 Fountain St. NE. The break in her killing came when the Kent County Metropolitan Cold Case Team had the suspect's DNA compared to the blood drop using technology not available at the time of the killing.

The odds of someone else having the same DNA profile as Ellis is one in 21 trillion, the prosecution said.

For those close to the victims, the killing is never far away. Carl Novak, who dated Ellis and once roomed with her and others at then-Grand Valley State College, testified he could not get ahold of her for several days and found her body a week after the killing.

He knew something was "seriously wrong" when he saw her keys and a notebook on the stairway leading to her apartment.

"I found her lying on the floor. At that point, I screamed and ran down the stairs. I went outside, and I yelled, 'Help, help."

At times, he wiped tears.

During defense questioning, he said he and others close to Ellis were investigated as potential suspects. He provided a DNA sample last year after consulting with an attorney. He also said he told police early on that her former boyfriend, whom he described as a "violent guy," could be a suspect.

Marshall has been imprisoned since a 1983 perjury conviction for lying to a citizen's grand jury investigating Luchie's killing.

His ex-wife is expected to testify against him at some point.

Police say Marshall could be connected to the deaths of Shelly Mills in September 1970, Kathryn Darling in March 1976, Nancy Sweetman in December 1976 and Catherine Fingleton in July 1980.

source: http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/06/prosecutors_point_to_pattern_o.html

see images at source

[awakening2lite]

Pattern of brutality cited in trial for '75 murder
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
By John Agar
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- The decades-ago attacks, targeting young, attractive women living in Heritage Hill, were brutal.

College student Laurel Jean Ellis, killed in May 1975, suffered 60 stab wounds -- 45 to her head and face -- and was strangled.

Ida Mae Luchie was bludgeoned in November 1977 with a stairway spindle in the laundry room of her apartment.

In 1980, a woman, resting on her couch after a softball game, suffered a blow to the throat after a man broke in.

He stuffed a macrame belt in her mouth and tried to rape her. Then, she heard and felt a knife plunge into her neck with such force the blade broke from the handle. The attacker just stared.

Paralyzed, but with use of one arm, she dragged herself to the telephone, grabbed the cord with her teeth and dialed "O" for operator.

Doctors could not get the knife out, it was in so deep. It took a hospital janitor, standing over the woman with pliers, while four others held her down for leverage, to finally remove the blade. She survived in what a prosecutor called a miraculous recovery.

Her alleged attacker, Lamont Marshall, 53, who lived near the victims, was sentenced to life in prison.

This week, Marshall, long an unindicted suspect in the six killings that began in 1970 and ended 10 years later, is on trial in Ellis' killing after a cold-case team linked his DNA to a drop of blood found on a tile near the door of her apartment.

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Helen Brinkman, in her opening statement Tuesday, used the two killings and attempted killing to show a pattern of brutality that binds the crimes.

"This is his modus operandi," she told jurors. "No way this is just a coincidence, your blood just happened to be at the scene."

Defense attorney Michael Liquigli said the drop of blood did not prove he was involved in the killing. His client's blood was not found anywhere else in the apartment.

"The evidence in this case is one drop of blood, outside the inner door of Ms. Ellis' apartment. There is none of his blood in the apartment. ... What did he do, spontaneously start bleeding on his way out the door?"

Testimony was to resume this morning before a jury in Kent County Circuit Judge George Buth's courtroom.

Ellis, 20, was killed May 22, 1975, in her apartment at 627 Fountain St. NE. The break in her killing came when the Kent County Metropolitan Cold Case Team had the suspect's DNA compared with the blood drop using technology not available at the time of the killing.

The odds of someone else having the same DNA profile as Ellis is one in 21 trillion, the prosecution said.

For those close to the victims, the killing is never far away. Carl Novak, who dated Ellis and once roomed with her and others at then-Grand Valley State College, testified he could not reach her for several days and found her body a week after the killing.

He knew something was "seriously wrong" when he saw her keys and a notebook on the stairway leading to her apartment.

"I found her lying on the floor. At that point, I screamed and ran down the stairs. I went outside, and I yelled, 'Help, help.' "

At times, he wiped tears.

During defense questioning, he said he and others close to Ellis were investigated as potential suspects. He provided a DNA sample last year after consulting with an attorney. He also said he told police early on that her former boyfriend, whom he described as a "violent guy," could be a suspect.

Marshall has been imprisoned since a 1983 perjury conviction for lying to a citizen's grand jury investigating Luchie's killing.

His ex-wife is expected to testify against him.

Police say Marshall could be connected to the deaths of Shelly Mills in September 1970, Kathryn Darling in March 1976, Nancy Sweetman in December 1976 and Catherine Fingleton in July 1980.

source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-42/121439972616950.xml&coll=6&thispage=1


At long last more families will find some kind of closure, if the jury finds him guilty.

[packy]

Good for the DNA.

Can you imagine, having a hospital janitor pull the broken knife out with pliers. OMG!