Marianne Shockley loss of life: Marcus Lillard, acquitted of homicide in loss of life of UGA professor, says “evil got here to play” the evening his girlfriend died in scorching tub

This story initially aired on Oct. 15, 2022.

A school professor, her boyfriend and a former psychologist — three pals in a small Georgia city bought collectively one spring evening to swim and play and hearken to music. Marianne Shockley was a revered faculty professor and renown entomologist. By morning, she and the previous psychologist, Clark Heindel, have been lifeless. Solely her boyfriend, Marcus Lillard, was alive.

“There may be good and there may be evil and that evening … evil got here to play,” Lillard, the only real survivor, tells “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti in an unique interview.  

Charged together with his girlfriend’s homicide, Lillard instructed investigators he had nothing to do with Marianne’s loss of life and a jury acquitted him. Her household would not consider him. So, what occurred that evening? 

A DEADLY NIGHT

It was nearing 3 a.m. on Mom’s Day, Might 12, 2019, when Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies stormed into Clark Heindel’s home and located he’d killed himself with a shotgun.

DEPUTY (bodycam video): Sheriff’s Workplace!

DEPUTY: Sheriff’s Workplace!

DEPUTY: We’re gonna must get that gun away from him … his hand’s nonetheless on it.

Solely moments earlier, Heindel had known as 911 asking paramedics to return to his dwelling in Milledgeville, Georgia, and the scene was captured on police bodycams.

911 OPERATOR: 911.

CLARK HEINDEL: Sure, I want an ambulance.

Heindel mentioned a buddy of his, faculty professor Marianne Shockley, had seemingly drowned in his scorching tub.

DEPUTY (bodycam audio): We gotta deal with this like against the law scene.

Inside hours, Marianne’s loss of life was being investigated as a murder and authorities say they’d two suspects: her boyfriend, Marcus Lillard, who was being held for questioning, and Heindel, a longtime resident of Milledgeville.  

Penny Dearmin: I feel a lotta individuals do suppose that as a result of Clark Heindel killed himself, he had some type of involvement.

Penny Dearmin investigated the case on her podcast, Blood City.

Penny Dearmin: I am doing this podcast as a result of I must know what occurred to her.

Because it seems, Dearmin had beforehand met Lillard.

Penny Dearmin: I met Marcus after I bought my truck.

On the time, Marcus Lillard was working as a automobile and truck finance supervisor.

Jonathan Vigliotti: And what was your impression throughout that transaction?

Penny Dearmin: He was very good. He was very personable, making jokes, making me really feel very comfy, very comfy … and I preferred him straight away.

Just about everybody agrees that Lillard, who was married and divorced twice, was a charmer. However, as Penny Dearmin later realized, that appeal got here with a fame.

Penny Dearmin: He was undoubtedly often called a women’ man. Everybody, no matter what they considered him, knew that about him.

Marcus Lillard: … one way or the other God continued to ship ladies my manner that have been manner too good for me. And I’d date ’em, and I might take ’em as a right, one proper after one other. And it was — it was a gradual sample.

Carson Lillard: He is probably the most … charismatic — particular person I’ve ever met. I imply he is simply bought this type of aura about him that sucks individuals in.

Carson is Marcus’ 23-year-old-son.

Carson Lillard: Wherever he wished to go, there was a lady there that he might shack up with and stick with.

And finally, Marianne additionally fell beneath his spell. The 2 had met within the late Nineteen Nineties once they have been college students at Georgia Faculty in Milledgeville and dealing on the similar native restaurant.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Was there a spark in that second?

Marcus Lillard: No. I used to be a child, man. I used to be most likely 17, and she or he would have been 20 … I used to be a little bit, you understand little — little wormy man.

Ayla Crippen: I believed he was effective. I imply, nothing stood out to me to be irregular about him.

Ayla Crippen is Marianne’s youthful sister. She went to the identical faculty as Marianne and Lillard.

Ayla Crippen: He … dated considered one of my finest pals and roommates on the time. Um, they did not date for very lengthy. She mentioned she bought a bizarre vibe from him.

Lillard admits medication bought in the way in which of his faculty schooling and he dropped out.

Marcus Lillard: I simply thought life was a celebration. And — I handled it as such.

Ayla Crippen: I by no means actually thought of him once more till Marianne began courting him, you understand, 20 years later.

The 12 months was 2017. Lillard was on the highway in Athens, Georgia. He knew Marianne lived there, so he invited her to lunch.

Marcus Lillard: I used to be on my bike, we took a visit round Athens … we went to her dwelling away from dwelling, the … botanical gardens. … The bike journey, I imply, that was s — it is as romantic as you may get for lunch time on a — on a Wednesday.

Some 20 years after they first met, Lillard says they clicked.

Marcus Lillard: We spent each potential second collectively on the weekends.

Marianne loved Lillard’s firm a lot that she introduced him alongside as her assistant on journeys to China and Ecuador.

Jonathan Vigliotti: So, it is a very severe relationship.

Marcus Lillard: Completely, yeah, yeah … we have been tremendous in love with one another.

Ayla Crippen: … to me, he was not relationship materials. He is someone that you simply go have an excellent time with, and then you definitely’d ship him on his manner.

Crippen says the connection appeared to swimsuit Marianne’s busy life-style. She’d been married and divorced thrice and had two kids. She had a PhD and was a star professor on the College of Georgia the place she was identified round campus as “Doc Shock.” Her specialty was entomology — the research of bugs.

Marianne preferred the whole lot about bugs, together with their style.

MARIANNE SHOCKLEY (video): Ants style like citrus. Some grain state bugs style like cinnamon.

She embraced entomophagy—the consuming of bugs. And she or he believed bugs might be used as a protein supply to assist resolve world starvation.

Shakara Maggitt was considered one of Marianne’s college students who turned a real believer and one thing of a bug baker. At “48 Hours”‘ request, she introduced some cricket brownie samples.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Let’s dig in. Let’s type of strive it. You possibly can put … a number of extra crickets on mine. I am not — I am not squeamish.

Shakara Maggitt (topping a brownie with extra crickets): OK, right here (laughs).

Jonathan Vigliotti(holds up brownie):  … To Marianne.

Shakara Maggitt: To Marianne. Ooh, and it is so moist.

Jonathan Vigliotti: The brownie is completely cooked, completely baked. And the crickets add a little bit little bit of added crunch.

Shakara Maggitt: Sure.

Maggitt says she might tolerate consuming bugs greater than she might tolerate Marcus Lillard.

Shakara Maggitt: I did not significantly look after him. I could not actually put my finger on it, however I did not like him.

Carson Lillard might relate.

Carson Lillard: No person is aware of a father higher than their very own son.

He had warned Marianne that Marcus had a Jekyll and Hyde persona, largely due to medication.

Carson Lillard: He was on cocaine my entire life.

And he cautioned her to watch out.

Carson Lillard: “… he is indignant, and he is violent and … you are gonna see it.”… “if I might inform you something it — it might simply be to — get away …”

A “CONFUSING AND DECEITFUL” NIGHT

On the afternoon of Might 11, 2019, Marcus Lillard and Marianne Shockley have been in a celebratory temper. The faculty faculty 12 months had simply ended and as seen in surveillance footage the couple went bar hopping in Milledgeville earlier than heading over to Clark Heindel’s home.

Marcus Lillard: … had a number of beers, smoked a little bit pot, began listenin’ to some music … had a pair extra beers.

Lillard spoke to “48 Hours” from jail; he is been behind bars since Marianne’s loss of life. He instructed us about that evening and the way it all started as an impromptu jam session. Clark Heindel performed the accordion and Marcus tried his hand on the conga drums, simply as they’d finished previously.

Marcus Lillard: We had stepped down from his porch and have been gettin’ prepared to go away. And I mentioned, “Hey Clark, I heard you bought some acid.” And he says, “No, however I’ve bought some ecstasy.”

Lillard says all three of them took the ecstasy drugs — a drug that makes customers really feel euphoric however can even trigger nervousness and paranoia.

Jonathan Vigliotti: What occurred subsequent?

Marcus Lillard: It bought all fuzzy after that.  

Marcus Lillard: I used to be so out of it … I could not make a sentence, I could not communicate.

However Lillard did later piece collectively a timeline and instructed investigators that he thought he and Marianne bought into the recent tub round 9 p.m. Marcus mentioned, at one level, he bought out of the recent tub and Marianne begged him to not go away.

Marcus Lillard: She says, “Child get — get again on this water with me proper now.”

Jonathan Vigliotti: … Was she afraid? Was she expressing any kinda concern —

Marcus Lillard: She had— she had — she had concern in her voice. And it was — it was undoubtedly concern.

Lillard says it was not clear what Marianne was afraid of.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Why, in that second, did you not flip again?

Marcus Lillard:  ‘Trigger I am an fool.

DEPUTY to MARCUS LILLARD (bodycam video): Go away that proper there. Do not contact nothin’.

Marcus initially instructed deputies that he went into the woods to gather firewood.

MARCUS LILLARD (bodycam video): I went over to get some wooden to make firewood. I introduced an entire bunch of stuff again …

However he later mentioned the true motive he went into the woods was that he was making an attempt to recreate a scene from a documentary known as “The Final Shaman.” Whereas on medication, the lead character takes half in weird rituals like being buried alive.

Marcus Lillard: I mentioned, “I am goin’ to the woods to dig a gap.”

Lillard says he went into the woods and easily laid down; for the way lengthy, he says he doesn’t know.

Marcus Lillard: I can not bear in mind something previous her saying, “Do not go away me.”

Jonathan Vigliotti: What do you say to those that are listening to this story of a man who has a historical past with medication, who’s claiming, you understand, “I blacked out.” Handy, it appears like.

Marcus Lillard: The satan was at work. I imply, the whole lot that he might have probably finished to line this factor as much as make it complicated and deceitful and — it was all there.

Jonathan Vigliotti: You emerge from the woods … What’s the very first thing you bear in mind seeing, listening to?

Marcus Lillard: I did not hear something … I might see Marianne slumped down along with her chin as much as her nostril beneath water.

CLARK HEINDEL (bodycam video): I — I am sittin’ down there (factors to the tip of the pool). Hanging out swimming at that finish of the pool.

DEPUTY: OK.

CLARK HEINDEL: Shallow finish.

DEPUTY: And she or he’s within the scorching tub. 

CLARK HEINDEL (affirms): Mm hmm.

DEPUTY: Have you learnt at what level you observed she wasn’t seen?

CLARK HEINDEL: I — I by no means noticed that she wasn’t seen. However I bought up, I assume when he was coming again.

Lillard says he pulled Marianne out of the recent tub and positioned her on the pool deck. In doing so, Marcus admits dropping Marianne who suffered a gash to her brow. At that time, he says Heindel walked over.

Marcus Lillard: And he really mentioned, “Ought to we name 911? …”

Jonathan Vigliotti: And what did you say?

Marcus Lillard: I mentioned, “No, I feel she’ll be effective.”

However Marianne was not effective. That gash on her head bled profusely and it appeared she was not respiratory. Lillard and Heindel say they took turns giving her CPR however delayed calling 911.

Podcaster Penny Dearmin has her personal concept about why Lillard didn’t instantly name police. In 2015, Marcus was convicted of promoting marijuana and possessing methamphetamine and cocaine. He was nonetheless on probation for that crime.

Penny Dearmin: I’d say that in the event you have been a person who’s been in bother with the regulation earlier than and also you’re at the moment on probation, that you’d be afraid to name 911.

Ayla Crippen: It makes my household so indignant and so harm … If he had an excellent coronary heart, if he really cherished Marianne, he would’ve sacrificed something to save lots of her.

CLARK HEINDEL to 911:  Sure, I want an ambulance at …

It is unclear how a lot time had handed earlier than Heindel known as 911, however investigators consider Marianne had been lifeless for a minimum of two hours earlier than assist arrived. The questions from deputies on the scene bought way more pointed.

DEPUTY (bodycam video): If she’s unconscious, y’all did not suppose to name 911? If she’s unconscious?

CLARK HEINDEL: It appeared like she was respiratory.

Deputies determined to separate the lads for additional questioning. They put Marcus in a squad automobile.

DEPUTY (bodycam video): Marcus, OK. Coverage says I’ve to place you in handcuffs any time I transport you, OK? Simply place your arms behind your again for me, OK?

However, judging from the bodycam footage, deputies gave the impression to be having a tough time getting Heindel to cooperate.

DEPUTY (bodycam video): I finished instructed him thrice to remain off the pool … however he is insistin’ to have his lawyer … Somethin’- somethin’ is just not proper right here, bro.

DEPUTY to CLARK HEINDEL:  Wait proper there. It is a crime scene now, wait proper there.
I requested you to attend again there, sir.

CLARK HEINDEL: What?

DEPUTY: I requested you to attend again there.

However then, the deputy watching Clark bought a cellphone name, and Clark wandered off.

DEPUTY: We bought a lifeless girl …

Nobody observed that Clark had slipped into his home — not till deputies heard that shotgun go off and located his physique.

DEPUTIES (bodycam video): Sheriff’s Workplace!

DEPUTIES: Sheriff’s Workplace!

DEPUTIES: Sheriff’s Workplace!

DEPUTY: He is within the rest room.

DEPUTY: Within the rest room?

DEPUTY: Yeah.

Ayla Crippen: … it tainted the case 100%, as a result of there weren’t two individuals there that would say what occurred. There was just one.

However investigators say Clark did go away behind a possible clue: a handwritten suicide be aware.

Marcus Lillard: And I simply mentioned, “Properly, he — he needed to have finished it.” … if that tablet made me so silly possibly it made him, for as soon as in his life, a violent man.

INVESTIGATORS FIND A KEY A PIECE OF EVIDENCE

Baldwin County Sheriff Invoice Massee and Main Brad King say they nonetheless cannot shake the unease they felt once they arrived at Clark Heindel’s home on Might 12, 2019 — through the early morning hours when Marianne Shockley was pronounced lifeless.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: The sensation at this scene was completely completely different than any I might ever been to … It was a really — a really unusual, unusual feeling that everyone observed right here.

Sheriff Massee remembers strolling via Heindel’s home when he noticed what turned out to be a handwritten suicide be aware on the kitchen counter.

Jonathan Vigliotti: That is the suicide be aware Clark wrote earlier than taking his life?

Sheriff Invoice Massee: That’s the be aware, sure, that we present in the home.

Jonathan Vigliotti: He says, “I’m very sorry. I do not know what occurred with Marianne, however it was on my watch, and I’m so sorry for the household and pals.

Massee says Heindel didn’t admit any guilt within the letter; it principally instructed his heirs on what to do together with his possessions. Marcus Lillard was now the one surviving witness from the scene that evening.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Why was Clark allowed to return into his dwelling?

Sheriff Invoice Massee: I will be upfront with you. It was a violation of our coverage and procedures.

Jonathan Vigliotti: How huge of a mistake was that on this case?

Sheriff Invoice Massee: Oh, it was a horrible mistake. Horrible mistake … It was a dramatic, a dramatic error on this case.

Quickly after deputies found Heindel had taken his life, Lillard was introduced in for questioning. Hours later he was interviewed by Michael Maybin, a particular agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, also referred to as the GBI. Maybin broke the information about Heindel’s suicide.

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: Throughout — through the time that, I assume, you have been within the again seat of the automobile, Clark went inside his home, and he dedicated suicide inside the home.

MARCUS LILLARD: Oh, s***. You are kiddin’.

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: I am not — I am not kiddin’. Why — why would — why would he try this?

MARCUS LILLARD: I do not know. Possibly that’ll shed some mild, however … I can not consider this. I’d by no means in 1,000,000 years guess he would try this.

Lillard instantly started speculating on what may need occurred when he says he was within the woods and away from Marianne.

MARCUS LILLARD: There is a fairly good likelihood that Clark bought in that scorching tub along with her … I am gonna say there is a very excessive likelihood of that, I imply, a extremely excessive likelihood …

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: Assist me out, man. Do you — do you suppose he did somethin’ to her?

MARCUS LILLARD: I do not suppose she woulda did it to herself, and I do know I did not do something …

The investigation was in its early levels and authorities weren’t certain who or what to consider. Ayla Crippen discovered it inconceivable to consider her sister might drown in a scorching tub. 

Ayla Crippen: Made no sense. Marianne was clever. Like, even when she was ingesting within the scorching tub, I simply couldn’t see that taking place.

Nearly instantly, investigators discovered about Lillard’s 2015 drug conviction. However they have been additionally wanting intently at Heindel, who was 69 years previous and had his personal points.

Jonathan Vigliotti: And he had a little bit of a — checkered previous that actually caught up with him and impacted his profession?

Penny Dearmin: Sure, sadly he misplaced his license to apply psychology.

Podcaster Penny Dearmin says Heindel’s license to apply psychology was revoked in 2017 after a former feminine affected person filed a criticism with a state licensing board. She  claimed that Clark had engaged her in a sexual relationship and had given her marijuana.

Penny Dearmin: It is a fairly sordid story.

However investigators might discover no proof Heindel had finished something to Marianne. Sheriff Massee had identified Clark for years and knew his son had died on the age of six from a uncommon type of most cancers.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: … losin’ his psychology license, the loss of life of a younger son that had had him depressed for years, the embarrassment of all of it, and it occurred at his home.

After his son’s loss of life, Dearmin says Heindel took the primary of a number of journeys to Peru to work with shamans, very similar to the principle character in “The Final Shaman” documentary.

By coincidence, Lillard says he and Heindel mentioned that movie on the evening Marianne died. And in one other weird twist, Lillard says Heindel discovered some hydrangea branches and shook them round Marianne’s physique.  

Sheriff Invoice Massee: It was— ritualistic, or a séance, or somethin’ …

Clark, who had opened a neighborhood yoga studio lately, had a number of pals and supporters, together with Lillard’s son who started seeing Clark for remedy when he was solely 14 years previous.

Carson Lillard: I did love Clark and I nonetheless do. And I feel I did not understand how a lot he meant to me till he was gone.

Carson Lillard says that as quickly as he heard Marianne was lifeless, he pinned the blame on his father whom he describes as a “malignant narcissist.”

Carson Lillard: … he was headed in direction of destruction and was decided to deliver someone with him.

And Carson Lillard wasn’t the one one who claimed Marcus had violent tendencies.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: I used to be at my desk on the workplace and a younger woman known as me, extraordinarily upset, and she or he mentioned, “Sheriff Massee, Marianne Shockley did not drown.” She mentioned, “Marcus choked her to loss of life.”

MARCUS LILLARD’S PAST REEMERGES 

Quickly after Marianne Shockley was declared lifeless within the early morning hours of Mom’s Day, Might 12, 2019, Sheriff Invoice Massee acquired that cellphone name from an ex-girlfriend of Marcus Lillard’s who mentioned she strongly suspected that Marcus had choked Marianne.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: She mentioned, “The identical factor occurred to me a very long time in the past after I was at a low level in my life,” and she or he mentioned he choked her havin’ intercourse.

Information had unfold via phrase of mouth within the small city that Marianne had died in a scorching tub, and Marcus was in jail.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: I — I requested if she’d come give us an announcement and she or he did.

Marcus Lillard’s ex-girlfriend instructed investigators that Marcus had a choking fetish and that it was an everyday a part of their intercourse life.

GBI AGENT: What number of instances do you suppose you and Marcus had intercourse?

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND: Possibly 100 instances. Possibly greater than that.

GBI AGENT: What number of instances do you suppose choking was concerned?

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND: I’d say a minimum of 30 instances.

The girl mentioned the erotic choking was consensual, however one time she says Lillard went too far.

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND (to GBI Agent): He choked me lengthy sufficient to the place I misplaced consciousness, and my physique crumpled to the ground, and he simply left me there.  

Lillard says his ex-girlfriend was exaggerating however he did not deny choking her throughout intercourse.

Marcus Lillard: It was actually extra of a spot to place your arms for management … Just a bit mild stress to the carotid arteries to — you understand, that was — that was actually about it. There was by no means any stress right here. (He touches his throat) The stress was right here. It was not that. It was blown manner outta proportion.

Lillard mentioned he solely tried choking Marianne one time and never on the evening she died. He mentioned she instructed him she did not prefer it and he by no means tried it once more. Ayla Crippen doesn’t consider him.  

Ayla Crippen: I consider that they have been having intercourse, and he choked her, and that’s what prompted her loss of life.

GBI brokers had first interviewed Lillard on Mom’s Day morning and later positioned him in custody on a probation maintain stemming from his 2015 drug conviction. The next day, Monday, Might 13, 2019, the post-mortem outcomes got here in and investigators felt they have been damning.

Sheriff Invoice Massee: We have been notified by the health worker that it was a traditional case of strangulation … busted blood vessels in her eyes and … had nothing to do with any drowning.

Medical Examiner Dr. Melissa Sims-Stanley wrote that Marianne “died because of asphyxia as a consequence of strangulation. The style of loss of life … is finest categorized as murder.”

Given the outcomes of the post-mortem and the knowledge from Lillard’s ex-girlfriend, authorities say Lillard turned the main target of the investigation. Hours after getting these post-mortem outcomes, GBI agent Michael Maybin requested one other interview with Marcus, and he agreed. Once more, he didn’t request a lawyer — a minimum of at first.

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: Strangulation is what killed her, OK …  and … it’s essential to inform me what the hell occurred as a result of you understand, and we have to discuss it.

MARCUS LILLARD: I do not know.

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: Sure, you do.

MARCUS LILLARD: If I knew I woulda instructed you instantly.

Agent Maybin accuses Lillard of mendacity.

MARCUS LILLARD: So, I must get a lawyer at this level, ‘trigger I imply you — you have already bought your thoughts made up, you already — you already bought your thoughts made up.

AGENT MICHAEL MAYBIN: Yep, I do … Properly, you are beneath arrest for homicide, I am going to inform you that.

It was solely at some point after Marianne’s loss of life when Marcus Lillard was charged along with her homicide. He was formally indicted almost two years later, in March 2021, and charged with 4 counts: felony homicide, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless conduct. He was ordered held with out bond.

Ayla Crippen: It made sense that she was not liable for her personal loss of life. As a result of I do know my sister. She wasn’t a careless particular person … did it make me really feel higher? No. As a result of now I do know that somebody took her from us.

Lillard sat in jail; months was years. Sheriff Massee says investigators vetted Clark Heindel and cleared him as a suspect. And because the trial approached, Lillard settled on Matt Tucker as his protection legal professional.

Matt Tucker: And he simply says, “I am not gonna admit to something I did not do.”

Largely due to COVID, almost three years glided by earlier than Marcus Lillard stood trial for the homicide of Marianne Shockley, however on April 4, 2022, his trial started on the Baldwin County Courthouse.

Assistant District Legal professional Tammy Coffey laid out what the prosecution believes occurred between Marcus and Marianne on the evening she died.

Tammy Coffey: After they bought within the scorching tub, I feel that they engaged in intercourse. I feel he choked her. I feel he choked her too arduous and for too lengthy.

Assistant District Legal professional Nancy Malcor instructed “48 Hours” there was no clear proof of sexual exercise as a result of Marianne’s physique had been within the scorching tub for a chronic time period. In the meantime, GBI brokers had been busy speaking to former intercourse companions of Lillard to find out if he had choked them. It seems GBI brokers discovered eight ladies.

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND #1:  I went out with Marcus a number of instances again within the fall of 2016 … One evening we have been having intercourse … and he put his arms round my neck.

DEPUTY: You mentioned he did choke you at instances?

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND #2: Mm-hmm (affirms).

MARCUS LILLARD EX-GIRLFRIEND #3: He did attempt to choke me. That was one thing he was into. I finished him twice. It isn’t one thing that I am into. I do not prefer it. It scares me.

Prosecutors put six of the ladies on the stand. The ladies testified Marcus choked them or tried to choke them throughout intercourse.

And two of these witnesses instructed jurors Marcus had choked them till they handed out.

Matt Tucker: All of it was consensual … “They’re nonetheless alive. So, I imply, how is it even related?”

However Ayla Crippen thinks their testimony was related and demonstrates how callous — and harmful — Lillard might be.

Ayla Crippen: It is one factor to gamble with your individual life, you understand. You wanna do medication, in the event you wanna choke your self out, I imply, OK … and considered one of his girlfriends, he simply instructed her to close up. In order that confirmed a disregard for girls interval.

The health worker testified to her findings, however Tucker observed that the post-mortem revealed the hyoid bone in Marianne’s neck was intact and never damaged. Some specialists, together with a surgeon Tucker consulted, take into account that uncommon in a strangulation case.

Matt Tucker: And he mentioned, “That is what it’s essential to discover. Discover out why it wasn’t damaged. If someone was to strangle … Marianne, why did not it break?”

Tucker recommended to Dr. Sims-Stanley that maybe whoever killed Marianne was too previous or not robust sufficient to interrupt that bone. He requested: might that particular person be 70 years of age?

Matt Tucker: And she or he mentioned, “Sure,” earlier than she realized what she was saying. Clark was 69 on the time.

Tucker says that reveals Clark, almost three a long time older than Marcus, might have been Marianne’s killer. However would this juror agree?

Tyisha Davis: I used to be not there to prosecute Clark. I used to be there to seek out whether or not Marcus Lillard was responsible or not.

ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

As Marcus Lillard’s trial progressed, protection legal professional Matt Tucker floated the speculation that Clark Heindel strangled Marianne after she rebuffed his sexual advances. It was a situation that Lillard mentioned had haunted him whereas he was behind bars.

Marcus Lillard: My concept for the higher a part of the three years was that he took a shot at her whereas she was alone, and she or he rejected him.

Prosecutors say there isn’t a proof Heindel did something to Marianne, and so they insist Lillard was the killer.

Tammy Coffey: Within the post-mortem— it reveals handbook strangulation … it was deliberate … the muscle groups themselves have been severely broken.

Marcus Lillard: I did not — I did not strangle her.

Jonathan Vigliotti: What do you say to people who find themselves satisfied you killed Marianne.

Marcus Lillard: I have been defending myself for thus lengthy, I am not even actually involved what they suppose …

At trial, prosecutors Tammy Coffey and Nancy Malcor put Marianne’s sister Ayla Crippen on the stand, and she or he talked a couple of non-public letter present in Marianne’s home.

AYLA CRIPPEN (in courtroom): The letter was her being reflective on her relationships and the way … she had chosen guys so far or to spend time with that weren’t good for her.

NANCY MALCOR: Did she point out anybody by identify?

AYLA CRIPPEN: She did … and that was Marcus … she wrote, “When he does white woman, he will get violent.”… the white woman, you understand, I understood that to be cocaine.

Assessments present that Lillard did have cocaine in his system the evening Marianne died however couldn’t pinpoint when he had taken the drug. As for that personal letter —

NANCY MALCOR (in courtroom): What did you do with it?

AYLA CRIPPEN: I gave it to my dad.

Crippen testified that her father burned the letter, main Matt Tucker to query her reminiscence.

MATT TUCKER (in courtroom): You do not recall what the start of this letter began as?

AYLA CRIPPEN: I don’t.

Matt Tucker: She swore up and down she learn it. However three years in the past, how do you bear in mind what was in there?

Tucker supplied jurors a second rationalization for Marianne’s loss of life — a concept now embraced by Lillard, who not blames Heindel. 

Marcus Lillard: I feel the ecstasy and the recent tub killed her.

Marcus Lillard: I really feel like in my– in my coronary heart of hearts, that the health workers made a mistake.

Lillard’s lawyer tried to get the health worker to confess Marianne might have died due to the quantity of ecstasy and alcohol in her system coupled with the warmth of the recent tub. Ecstasy is also referred to as MDMA.

Matt Tucker: “Now, ma’am, it is true that this scorching tub was 107. They’re solely purported to be 104 … That did not have an element with the physique temperature bein’ that top, with havin’ the excessive ranges of MDMA in her system, with them bein’ ingesting all day … this had nothing to do with it?”

Matt Tucker: And she or he was like, “No.” She simply disregarded that instantly.

However the health worker’s personal post-mortem revealed that Marianne had cardiomegaly, an enlarged coronary heart, which is a situation that medical specialists say might result in sudden cardiac loss of life.

“48 Hours” had some questions and despatched all of the post-mortem data to Dr. Greg Davis, a forensic pathologist not concerned with the case. After reviewing the paperwork, he mentioned that it was “potential” Marianne was strangled however, “A legitimate competing explanation for loss of life is sudden cardiac loss of life as a consequence of blended drug intoxication, a deadly mixture of MDMA, alcohol, and marijuana with a contribution from underlying coronary heart illness.”

He mentioned there was “no manner” he would have known as Marianne’s loss of life a “murder.” If it have been as much as him, he wrote, he’d classify her method of loss of life as “undetermined.” However no medical specialists testified for the protection. Nobody did, not even Marcus Lillard.

Matt Tucker: He wished to testify dangerous. He wished to get throughout, however I did not suppose it would be productive.

The trial moved swiftly. Jury choice began on a Monday and by late Friday afternoon April 8, 2022, the case went to the jury.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Time to deliberate. What are you pondering?

Marcus Lillard: I had peace, man. I had peace over — over the — actually the entire thing.

Deliberations started and ended identical to that.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Lower than an hour goes by; there is a verdict.

Matt Tucker: 38 minutes.

Tyisha Davis: My first impression was he did it. He dedicated this homicide. And no matter they inform me … it isn’t gonna show to me that he did not do it.

Tyisha Davis was juror No. 11.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Why did you suppose that?

Tyisha Davis: As a result of the professor was his girlfriend. And Clark Heindel was a 70-something-year-old man. He could not have murdered her. And I simply — knew Marcus did it. I simply knew he did it.

The highest cost was felony homicide, and the verdict was not responsible. Verdicts on the opposite prices adopted in fast succession.

Carson Lillard: And it is simply not responsible, not responsible, not responsible, not responsible. With every one … my coronary heart simply kinda sunk decrease and decrease.

Carson Lillard: I believed there was no manner that he might get off.

Ayla Crippen: We have been in utter shock. … Everybody was shocked. And, in fact, I look over at Marcus and he is bought a smirk on his face, and my blood was boiling.

How does Tyisha Davis clarify her change of coronary heart?

Tyisha Davis: I felt just like the prosecuting legal professional, she painted the image that Marcus Lillard was a womanizer. He was a narcissist. However … they did not show that he was a killer.

Jonathan Vigliotti: What do you suppose occurred to Maryanne Shockley that evening?

Tyisha Davis: I do not know what occurred … that pissed off me as a result of we do not know what occurred to her. Or if she actually was strangled, if she died from strangulation … Who strangled her?

Jonathan Vigliotti: So, it appears like — you even query if there was a homicide within the first place.

Tyisha Davis: I had my doubts about that.

Decide Alison Burleson additionally had doubts, however they have been of a unique nature.

JUDGE ALISON T. BURLESON: Mr. Lillard, I’ve come to fairly a unique conclusion than what the jury has come to. It’s fairly clear to this courtroom that the one particular person you have been involved with that evening Might 11, 2019, was your self.

She instantly discovered that Marcus violated his probation for that 2015 drug conviction and he was remanded to jail.

Marcus Lillard: My conscience may be very clear with regards to Marianne. Do I miss Marianne? Yeah. I used to be fortunate to get (voice breaks) that point along with her that I did. And I cherish that.

Ayla Crippen: I consider Marianne each single day. I’ve her identify on my bracelet … I am sporting her earrings proper now … Marianne was probably the most stunning spirit.

Ayla Crippen: She labored arduous … She cared about issues that different individuals did not care about. The teeny, weeny creatures that hold us alive, that hold our world turning.

Marcus Lillard might stay in jail till October 2030, however it’s possible he’ll be launched sooner.

Marianne Shockley’s kids settled a wrongful loss of life lawsuit in opposition to Clark Heindel’s property for $500,000. There was no admission of legal responsibility or fault.

This story discusses suicide. In case you or somebody you understand is having ideas of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Disaster Lifeline at 988.

---

Produced by Paul LaRosa. Elizabeth Caholo and Ryan Smith are the event producers. Morgan Canty is the affiliate producer. Jordan Kinsey is the sphere producer. Doreen Schechter, George Baluzy and James Taylor are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.