Convicted in wife slaying, profiled in book and TV miniseries, Robert Marshall dies in prison
A former insurance salesman profiled in a best-selling book and television miniseries about the contract killing of his wife has died in prison.
Robert Marshall, 75, was convicted in 1986 for conspiring to murder his wife, Maria, who was shot to death in 1984 at a isolated picnic area off the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Marshall claimed he had pulled off the parkway to check a tire and was himself attacked and knocked out by the robbers who killed his wife.
An extramarital affair and a $1.5 million insurance policy on Maria Marshall helped persuade a jury to convict Marshall, who was drowning in debt, as author Joe McGinniss detailed in his book Blind Faith. The Asbury Park Press retold the story of the Ocean County case last year, as Marshall’s first parole hearing loomed.
Marshall had been scheduled for another parole hearing next month. His successful battle to overturn his capital sentence was one of the most extensive challenges to the death penalty in New Jersey history, the New Jersey Advance reports. The result was a life sentence requiring Marshall to serve a minimum of 30 years. His bid for early release, due to health problems and a model disciplinary record, was nixed in 2012.
The Asbury Park Press, which interviewed one of Marshall’s sons on Monday, said the likely cause of his death on Saturday was complications from a stroke he suffered over the summer. Prison officials said they could not comment on the record due to health care privacy regulations. The Atlantic City Press also has a story.
The admitted triggerman in Maria’s slaying, Larry Thompson, was acquitted at trial in 1986; however, he confessed to investigators in 2014 that the alibi provided by his family members was incorrect, and he had indeed fatally shot Maria. Thompson cannot be retried under the double jeopardy rule but is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for other crimes, the Star-Ledger reported last year.
Two other Louisiana men were convicted in the case:
Former sheriff’s officer Billy Wayne McKinnon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and got five years, actually serving just three months. He testified that Marshall hired him and Thompson to commit the murder, and said he and Thompson drove ahead of Marshall’s Cadillac Eldorado to the Oyster Creek picnic area on Sept. 7, 1984, where Thompson shot Maria to death.
Robert Cumber was found guilty at trial of being an accomplice to murder and got life, although his sentence was commuted by the New Jersey governor in 2006. The government said Cumber introduced Marshall to McKinnon, several months before the slaying, at an Atlantic City casino and passed information between the two.
In a 2001 interview with the Star-Ledger, Marshall, who continued to maintain his innocence and wear his wedding ring in prison, contended that he hired McKinnon simply to find out whether his wife knew about the affair he was having. He says the couple was robbed because McKinnon saw him win $6,000 at a casino and followed them to get the money.
“I’m not trying to say that I didn’t do something stupid,” he told the newspaper. “But I had nothing to do with my wife’s death. I feel responsible for it, of course, because if I had not messed around, had I remained faithful to my wife, I’m sure she would be alive today.”
Part-time prosecutor Kevin Kelly, who was portrayed in Blind Faith as a bulldog who believed from the moment he read a brief newspaper article about the murder that Marshall was guilty, also spoke with the Star-Ledger in 2001.
“I caught him in so many lies,” Kelly told the newspaper, referring his prosecution of Marshall the Ocean County case. “You didn’t have to be a star trial lawyer to cross-examine him.”
Two of Marshall’s three sons came to believe that he was guilty of killing their mother, due in part to Kelly’s devastating attack on Marshall’s testimony in court. After his conviction, they disowned him and fought his efforts to win release from prison.
“For the past 30 years of my life, I have lived with the reality of having a parent who is a monster,” Marshall’s son Chris told the Asbury Park Press on Monday. “But for the first 18 years of my life, he was my father, who supported his family, and was always there for us when we needed him.”
Related coverage:
New York Times (reg. req.): “Legal Saga Ends for Man Who Hired Wife’s Killer”
Asbury Park Press: “Marshall sons: ‘Leave that selfish monster where he is’”
