[THEME MUSIC]
There is good, and there is evil.
And that night, evil came to play.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We got a good one here.
We got a call about a woman being under water
for a minute or two.
Don't touch nothing.
No, no, leave that down there.
Don't touch nothing.
Her boyfriend said he walked out in the woods.
And when he come back, well, she was propped up in the hot tub,
and she was not breathing.
And tell me her name again.
Marianne Shockley.
Marianne?
Last name Shockley?
We got out, and she got a big old gash on her head.
I'm telling you.
The hair on the back of my neck is standing up.
Something ain't right with this.
What's your name?
Marcus Lillard.
I'm Marianne's boyfriend.
I talked to her every morning and every night.
She was my hero because she was so intelligent.
My name is Dr. Marianne Shockley.
I'm an outreach entomologist, and I'm
the director of the Insect Zoo.
She was on the cutting edge of the industry.
I absolutely looked up to her.
As my big sister, I wanted to be her.
We're going to rope it off and go from there.
I want you to now take me to May 11, 2019.
OK.
Take me through the day, what happens.
Well--
They went bar hopping.
We had a couple of mimosas, and then we have a couple of shots.
And then, they went out to the country club
and had drinks there.
I'm Penny Dearmin.
This is Blood Town.
I created the podcast about the Marianne Shockley case.
They were having a really fun night.
At this point, how many drinks do you think you've had?
Oh-- I--
There was some communication about--
does somebody have a pool?
Marcus knew that his friend Clark Heindel had a pool.
Sir, can I get your name please?
Clark.
And they went over there at some point.
They like to have a few drinks.
They brought some beer with them.
Marcus and Marianne are in the hot tub,
and they are enjoying themselves.
What the hell happened after that?
Marcus says that he went into the woods
to gather some firewood.
As I dropped the wood off at the fireplace,
I could see Marianne slumped down.
He called out her name, and she did not respond.
We started doing CPR.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
My mother called me, and she said, Marianne's gone.
I just fell to the ground, and I just was saying, no, Momma.
No, no.
And she was like, she's drowned in some hot tub.
Marianne is not stupid.
She would not drown in a hot tub.
Something's funny with this one, buddy.
It ain't adding up.
I just knew that Marcus had killed her.
I'm Carson Lillard.
I'm Marcus's son.
He's angry, and he's violent.
Marcus is in a police car at this point.
You're not under arrest or anything right now, OK?
Where is Clark?
He went into his house.
Sheriff's Office.
And he shot himself to death.
My very first thought was he had to have had something
to do with this.
Why would he kill himself?
There's something that he's hiding.
I don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[THEME MUSIC]
It was nearing 3:00 AM on Mother's Day, May 12, 2019.
Sheriff's Office.
That's when Baldwin County Sheriff deputies
stormed into Clark Heindel's house
and found he'd killed himself with a shotgun.
We're going to need to get that gun away from him.
His hand's still on it.
[BEEPING]
911.
Yes, I need an ambulance.
Only moments earlier, Clark had called 911, asking paramedics
to come to his home in Milledgeville, Georgia,
and the scene was captured on police bodycams.
Clark said a friend of his, college professor Marianne
Shockley, had seemingly drowned in his hot tub.
We've got to treat this like a crime scene.
Within hours, Marianne's death was being investigated
as a homicide, and authorities say
they had two suspects, her boyfriend, Marcus Lillard, who
was being held for questioning, and Clark, a longtime resident
of Milledgeville.
I think a lot of people do think that because Clark
Heindel killed himself, he had some kind of involvement.
Today, we're recording on location in Milledgeville.
This is season two--
Penny Dearmin investigated the case on her podcast.
Today, we're recording on--
I'm doing this podcast because I need
to know what happened to her.
As it turns out, Penny had previously met Marcus.
I met Marcus when I purchased my truck.
At the time, Marcus was working as a car and truck finance
manager.
And what was your impression during that transaction?
He was very nice.
He was very personable, making jokes,
making me feel very comfortable, very at ease.
And I liked him right away.
Pretty much everyone agrees that Marcus,
who was married and divorced twice, was a charmer.
But as Penny later learned, that charm came with a reputation.
He was definitely known as a ladies' man.
Everyone, regardless of what they thought of him,
knew that about him.
Somehow God continued to send women
my way that were way too good for me.
And I would date them, and I'd take them
for granted one right after another.
It was a steady pattern.
He's the most charismatic person I've ever met.
I mean, he's just got this kind of aura about him
that sucks people in.
Carson is Marcus's 23-year-old son.
Anywhere he wanted to go, there was a woman
there that he could shack up with and stay with.
And eventually, Marianne also fell under his spell.
The two had met in the late '90s when they were students
at Georgia College in Milledgeville
and working at the same local restaurant.
Was there a spark in that moment?
No, I was a kid, man.
I was probably 17, and she would have been 20.
I was a little wormy guy.
I thought he was fine.
I mean, nothing stood out to me to be irregular about him.
Ayla Crippen is Marianne's younger sister.
She went to the same college as Marianne and Marcus.
He dated one of my best friends and roommates at the time.
They didn't date for very long.
She said she got a weird vibe from him.
Marcus admits drugs got in the way of his college education,
and he dropped out.
I just thought life was a party, and I treated it as such.
I never really thought about him again until Marianne started
dating him two decades later.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The year was 2017.
Marcus was on the road in Athens, Georgia.
He knew Marianne lived there, so he invited her to lunch.
I was on my motorcycle.
We took a trip around Athens.
We went to her home away from home, the botanical gardens.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The motorcycle ride, I mean, that was as romantic
as you can get for lunchtime on a Wednesday.
Some 20 years after they first met, Marcus says they clicked.
We spent every possible moment together on the weekends.
Marianne enjoyed Marcus's company
so much that she brought him along as her assistant on trips
to China and Ecuador.
So this is a very serious relationship.
Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
We were super in love with each other.
To me, he was not relationship material.
He's somebody that you go have a good time with,
and then you'd send him on his way.
Ayla says the relationship seemed
to suit Marianne's busy lifestyle.
She'd been married and divorced three times
and had two children.
She had a PhD and was a star professor
at the University of Georgia, where she was known
around campus as Doc Shock.
Her specialty was entomology, the study of insects.
We are going to talk about bugs.
Marianne liked everything about insects, including their taste.
Ants taste like citrus.
Well, some green stink bugs taste like cinnamon.
She embraced entomophagy, the eating of insects,
and she believed bugs could be used as a protein source
to help solve world hunger.
So what do we have here?
Today, we have cricket brownies.
Shakara Maggitt was one of Marianne's students
who became a true believer and something of a bug baker.
At our request, she brought some samples.
Let's dig in.
Let's try it.
You can put a few more crickets on mine.
I'm not squeamish.
OK.
Here.
To Marianne.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh, and it's so moist.
The brownie is perfectly cooked, perfectly baked,
and the crickets add a little bit of added crunch.
Yes.
Shakara says she could tolerate eating bugs more
than she could tolerate Marcus.
I didn't particularly care for him.
I couldn't really put my finger on it, but I didn't like him.
Carson could relate.
Nobody knows a father better than their own son.
He had warned Marianne that Marcus had a Jekyll and Hyde
personality, largely because of drugs.
He was on cocaine my whole life.
And he cautioned her to be careful.
He's angry, and he's violent.
And you're going to see it.
If I could tell you anything, it would just be to get away.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
On the afternoon of May 11, 2019,
Marcus and Marianne were in a celebratory mood.
The college school year had just ended.
And as seen in this surveillance footage,
the couple went bar hopping in Milledgeville
before heading over to Clark Heindel's house.
Had a few beers, smoked a little pot,
started to listen to some music, had a couple more beers.
Marcus spoke to us from jail.
He's been behind bars since Marianne's death.
He told us about that night and how it all began
as an impromptu jam session.
Clark played the accordion, and Marcus tried his hand
at the conga, just as they had done in the past.
We had stepped down from his porch
and were getting ready to leave.
I said, hey, Clark.
I heard you got some acid.
He says, no, but I got some ecstasy.
Marcus says all three of them took the ecstasy pills,
a drug that makes users feel euphoric but can also
cause anxiety and paranoia.
What happened next?
It got all fuzzy after that.
I was so out of it I couldn't make a sentence.
So I couldn't speak.
But Marcus did later pieced together a timeline
and told investigators that he thought
he and Marianne got into the hot tub around 9:00 PM.
Marcus said, at one point, he got out of the hot tub,
and Marianne begged him not to leave.
She says, baby, get back in this water with me right now.
Was she afraid?
Was she expressing any kind of concern?
She had fear in her voice, and it was definitely fear.
Marcus says it was not clear what Marianne was afraid of.
Why, in that moment, did you not turn back?
Because I'm an idiot.
Leave that right there.
Don't touch nothing.
Marcus initially told deputies that he went into the woods
to collect firewood.
I went over to get some wood to make firewood.
I brought a whole bunch of stuff back.
But he later said the real reason he went into the woods
was that he was trying to recreate
a scene from a documentary called The Last Shaman.
[EERIE MUSIC]
While on drugs, the lead character
takes part in bizarre rituals, like being buried alive.
I said, I'm going to the woods to dig a hole.
Marcus says he went into the woods and simply laid down.
For how long, he says he does not know.
I can't remember anything past her saying, don't leave me.
What do you say to those who are hearing this story of a guy who
has a history of drugs, who is claiming, "I blacked out?"
Convenient, it sounds like.
The devil was at work.
I mean, everything that he could have possibly
done to line this thing up to make
it confusing and deceitful.
And it was all there.
You emerge from the woods.
What is the first thing you remember seeing, hearing?
I didn't hear anything.
I could see Marianne slumped down with her chin
up to her nose under water.
Deputies asked Clark where he was when Marianne
was in the hot tub, and he says he stayed
in the far end of the pool.
I'm sitting down there, hanging out, swimming
at that end of the pool.
OK.
Shallow end.
And she's in that hot tub?
Mm-hmm.
Do you know at what point you noticed she wasn't visible?
I never saw that she wasn't visible.
But I got up, I guess, when he was coming back.
Marcus says he pulled Marianne out of the hot tub
and placed her on the pool deck.
In doing so, Marcus admits dropping Marianne, who suffered
a gash to her forehead.
At that point, he says, Clark walked over.
And he actually said, should we call 911?
And what did you say?
I said, no, I think she'll be fine.
But Marianne was not fine.
That gash on her head bled profusely,
and it appeared she was not breathing.
Marcus and Clark say they took turns giving her CPR
but delayed calling 911.
Maybe speak to some of the individuals that were present--
Podcaster Penny Dearmin has her own theory
about why Marcus did not immediately call police.
In 2015, Marcus was convicted of selling marijuana
and possessing methamphetamine and cocaine.
He was still on probation for that crime.
I would say that if you were an individual who's
been in trouble with the law before
and you're currently on probation, that you
would be afraid to call 911.
It makes my family so angry and so hurt.
If he had a good heart, if he truly loved Marianne,
he would have sacrificed anything to save her.
It's unclear how much time had passed before Clark called 911.
Yes, I need an ambulance.
But investigators believe Marianne
had been dead for at least two hours before help arrived.
The questions from deputies on the scene
got much more pointed.
So if she's unconscious, y'all didn't think to call 911,
if she's unconscious?
And no one thought--
It seemed like she was breathing.
Deputies decided to separate the men for further questioning.
They put Marcus in a squad car.
Marcus, policy says I have to put you in handcuffs any time
I transport you, OK?
Just place your hands behind your back for me, OK?
But judging from the bodycam footage,
deputies seemed to be having a hard time
getting Clark to cooperate.
I done told him three times to stay off the pool,
but he's insisting to have his lawyer.
Something is not right here, bro.
Wait right there.
It's a crime scene now.
Wait right there.
I asked you to wait back there, sir.
I asked you to wait back there.
But then, the deputy watching Clark got a phone call,
and Clark wandered off.
We got a dead woman.
No one noticed that Clark had slipped into his house,
not until deputies heard that shotgun go off.
Sheriff's Office.
And found his body.
He's in the bathroom.
In the bathroom?
Yeah.
It tainted the case 100%, because there
weren't two people there that could say what happened.
There was only one.
But investigators say Clark did leave behind a potential clue,
a handwritten suicide note.
And I just said, well, he had to have done it.
If that pill made me so stupid, maybe it made him, for once
in his life, a violent guy.
What do you think happened to Marianne Shockley?
Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee and Major Brad King
say they still can't shake the unease they felt when they
arrived at Clark Heindel's house on May 12, 2019,
during the early morning hours when Marianne Shockley was
pronounced dead.
The feeling at this scene was totally different
than any I'd ever been to, and it was a very strange feeling
that everybody noticed here.
Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Massee remembers walking through Clark's house
when he spotted what turned out to be a handwritten suicide
note on the kitchen counter.
This is the suicide note Clark wrote before taking his life?
That is the note, yes, that we found in the house.
He says, "I am very sorry.
I don't know what happened with Marianne,
but it was on my watch.
And I am so sorry for the family and friends."
Massee says Clark did not admit any guilt in the letter.
It mostly instructed his heirs on what
to do with his possessions.
Marcus was now the only surviving witness
from the scene that night.
Why was Clark allowed to go back into his home?
Well, I'll be upfront with you.
It was a violation of our policy and procedures.
How big of a mistake was that in this case?
Oh, a terrible mistake, terrible mistake.
It was a dramatic, a dramatic error in this case.
Soon after deputies discovered Clark had killed himself,
Marcus was taken in for questioning.
Hours later, he was interviewed by Michael Maybin,
a special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
also known as the GBI.
Maybin broke the news about Clark's suicide.
During the time that, I guess, you
were in the backseat of the car, Clark went inside his house,
and he committed suicide inside the house.
Oh, [BLEEP].
You're kidding.
I'm not kidding.
Why would he do that?
I don't know.
Maybe that shed some light, but--
I can't believe this.
I would never in a million years guess he would do that.
Marcus immediately began speculating
on what might have happened when he says he was in the woods
and away from Marianne.
There's a pretty good chance that Clark got in that hot tub
with her.
I'm going to say there's a very high chance of that,
I mean, a really high chance.
Help me out, man.
Do you think he did something to her?
I don't think she would do it to herself,
and I know I didn't do anything.
The investigation was in its early stages,
and authorities weren't sure who or what to believe.
Ayla found it impossible to believe her sister could
drown in a hot tub.
That made no sense.
Marianne was intelligent.
Even if she was drinking in the hot tub,
I just could not see that happening.
Almost immediately, investigators
found out about Marcus's 2015 drug conviction,
but they were also looking closely
at Clark Heindel, who was 69 years old
and had his own issues.
And he had a bit of a checkered past
that really caught up with him and impacted his career.
Yes.
Unfortunately, he lost his license to practice psychology.
Podcaster Penny Dearmin says Clark's license
to practice psychology was revoked in 2017
after a former female patient filed a complaint with a state
licensing board.
She charged that Clark had engaged her
in a sexual relationship and had given her marijuana.
It's a pretty sordid tale.
But investigators could find no proof Clark had done anything
to Marianne.
Sheriff Massee had known Clark for years
and knew his son had died at the age of six
from a rare form of cancer.
Losing his psychology license, the death of a young son
that had him depressed for years,
the embarrassment of it all, and it happened at his house.
After his son's death, Penny says
Clark took the first of several trips
to Peru to work with shamans, much like the main character
in The Last Shaman documentary.
[RADIO CHATTER]
By coincidence, Marcus says he and Clark
discussed that film on the night Marianne died.
And in another bizarre twist, Marcus
says Clark found some hydrangea branches
and shook them around Marianne's body.
It was ritualistic or seance or something.
Clark, who had opened a local yoga studio in recent years,
had a lot of friends and supporters,
including Marcus's son, who began seeing Clark for therapy
when he was only 14 years old.
I did love Clark, and I still do.
And I think I didn't realize how much he
meant to me until he was gone.
Carson says that as soon as he heard Marianne was dead,
he pinned the blame on his father
whom he describes as a "malignant narcissist."
He was headed towards destruction
and was determined to bring somebody with him.
And Carson wasn't the only person
who felt Marcus had violent tendencies.
I was at my desk at the office, and a young lady
called me, extremely upset.
And she said, Sheriff Massee, Marianne Shockley didn't drown.
She said, Marcus choked her to death.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Soon after Marianne Shockley was declared dead
in the early morning hours of Mother's Day, May 12, 2019,
Sheriff Massee received that phone
call from an ex-girlfriend of Marcus who
said she strongly suspected that Marcus had choked Marianne.
She said, the same thing happened to me a long time ago
when I was in a low point in my life.
And she said he choked her having sex.
News had spread through word of mouth in the small town
that Marianne had died in a hot tub, and Marcus was in jail.
I asked if she'd come give us a statement, and she did.
Marcus's ex-girlfriend told investigators
that Marcus had a choking fetish and that it was a regular part
of their sex life.
How many times do you think you and Marcus had sex?
Maybe 100 times.
Maybe more than that.
How many times do you think choking was involved?
I would say at least 30 times.
The woman said the erotic choking was consensual.
But one time, she says, Marcus went too far.
He chocked me long enough to where I lost consciousness,
and my body crumpled to the floor.
And he just left me there.
Marcus says his ex-girlfriend was exaggerating,
but he didn't deny choking her during sex.
It was really more of a place to put your hands for control,
just a little light pressure to the carotid arteries.
That was really about it.
There's never any pressure here.
The pressure was here.
It was not that.
It was blown way out of proportion.
Marcus said he only tried choking Marianne one time
and not on the night she died.
He said she told him she didn't like it,
and he never tried it again.
Ayla does not believe him.
I believe that they were having sex, and he choked her.
And that is what caused her death.
GBI agents had first interviewed Marcus on Mother's Day morning
and later placed him in custody on a probation hold
stemming from his previous drug conviction.
The following day, Monday, May 13, 2019, the autopsy results
came in, and investigators felt they were damning.
We were notified by the medical examiner
that it was a classic 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 quote, "died as a result of asphyxia
due to strangulation.
The manner of death is best classified as homicide."
Given the results of the autopsy and the information
from Marcus's ex-girlfriend, authorities
say Marcus became the focus of the investigation.
Hours after getting those autopsy results,
GBI agent Michael Maybin requested another interview
with Marcus, and he agreed.
Again, he did not request a lawyer, at least at first.
Strangulation is what killed her.
And you need to tell me what the hell happened because you know,
and we need to talk about it.
I don't know.
Yes, you do.
If I knew, I would have told you immediately.
Agent Maybin accuses Marcus of lying.
So I need to get a lawyer at this point because, I mean,
you've already got your mind made up.
You already got your mind made up.
Yep, I do.
Well, you're under arrest for murder.
I'll tell you that.
It was only one day after Marianne's death
when Marcus was charged with her murder.
He was formally indicted nearly two years later, in March 2021,
and charged with four counts--
felony murder, aggravated assault,
involuntary manslaughter, and reckless conduct.
He was ordered held without bond.
It made sense that she was not responsible for her own death.
Because I know my sister.
She wasn't a careless person.
Did it make me feel better?
No.
Because now I know that someone took her from us.
Marcus sat in jail.
Months turned into years.
Sheriff Massee says investigators vetted Clark
and dropped him as a suspect.
And as the trial approached, Marcus settled on Matt Tucker
as his defense attorney.
And he just says, I'm not going to admit
to anything I didn't do.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Largely because of COVID, nearly three years
went by before Marcus Lillard stood trial
for the murder of Marianne Shockley.
But on April 4, 2022, his trial began here
at the Baldwin County Courthouse.
Assistant District Attorney Tammy Coffey
laid out what the prosecution believes
happened between Marcus and Marianne on the night she died.
After they got in the hot tub, I think that they engaged in sex.
I think he choked her.
I think he chocked her too hard and for too long.
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Malcor
told 48 Hours there was no clear evidence of sexual activity
because Marianne's body had been in the hot tub
for a prolonged period of time.
Meanwhile, GBI agents had been busy
talking to former sex partners of Marcus
to determine if he had choked them.
It turns out GBI agents found eight women.
I went out with Marcus a few times back in the fall of 2016.
One night, we were having sex, and he put his hands
around my neck.
You said he did choke you at times?
Mm-hmm.
He did try to choke me.
That was something that he was into.
I stopped him twice.
It's not something that I'm into.
I don't like it.
It scares me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Prosecutors put six of the women on the stand.
The women testified Marcus choked them or attempted
to choke them during sex.
And two of those witnesses told jurors Marcus had choked them
until they passed out.
All of it was consensual.
They're still alive.
So I mean, how is it even relevant?
But Ayla thinks their testimony was relevant and demonstrates
how callous and dangerous Marcus could be.
It's one thing to gamble with your own life.
If you want to do drugs, if you want to choke yourself out,
I mean, OK.
And one of his girlfriends, he just told her to shut up.
So that showed a disregard for women, period.
The medical examiner testified to her findings,
but Tucker noticed that the autopsy revealed
the hyoid bone in Marianne's neck was intact and not broken.
Some experts, including a surgeon Tucker consulted,
considered that unusual in a strangulation case.
And he said, that's what you need to explore.
Find out why it wasn't broken.
If somebody was strangling Marianne, why didn't it break?
Tucker suggested to Dr. Sims-Stanley
that perhaps whoever killed Marianne was too old or not
strong enough to break that bone.
He asked, could that person be 70 years of age?
And she said yes before she realized what she was saying.
Clark was 69 at the time.
Tucker says, that shows Clark, nearly three decades older
than Marcus, could have been Marianne's killer.
But would this juror agree?
I was not there to prosecute Clark.
I was there to find whether Marcus Lillard was guilty
or not.
Follow the evidence to learn more about what
happened the night Marianne died at 48hours.com.
Let the record reflect that all jurors are present.
State counsel is present.
Defendant--
As Marcus Lillard's trial progressed,
defense attorney Matt Tucker floated the theory
that Clark strangled Marianne after she
rebuffed his sexual advances.
It was a scenario that Marcus said had haunted him
while he was behind bars.
My theory for the better part of the three years
was that he took a shot at her while she was alone,
and she rejected him.
Prosecutors say there is no evidence Clark did anything
to Marianne, and they insist Marcus was the killer.
In the autopsy, it shows manual strangulation.
It was deliberate.
The muscles themselves were severely damaged.
I didn't strangle her.
What do you say to people who are
convinced you killed Marianne?
I've been defending myself for so long.
I'm not even really concerned what they think.
At trial, prosecutors Tammy Coffey and Nancy Malcor
put Marianne's sister Ayla on the stand.
I know my sister.
I know--
And she talked about a private letter
found in Marianne's house.
The letter was her being reflective on her relationships
and how she has selected guys to date or to spend time with that
were not good for her.
Did she mention anyone by name?
She did, and that was Marcus.
She wrote, "When he does white lady, he gets violent."
The white lady, I understood that to be cocaine.
Test show that Marcus did have cocaine in his system the night
Marianne died but could not pinpoint
when he had taken the drug.
It was enough to--
As for that private letter--
What did you do with it?
I gave it to my dad.
Ayla testified that her father burned the letter,
leading Matt Tucker to question her memory.
You don't recall what the beginning of this letter
started as?
I do not.
She swore up and down she read it.
But three years ago, how do you remember what was in there?
Tucker offered jurors a second explanation
for Marianne's death, a theory now
embraced by Marcus, who no longer blames Clark.
I think the ecstasy and the hot tub killed her,
and I feel like in my heart of hearts
that the medical examiner has made a mistake.
Marcus's lawyer tried to get the medical examiner
to admit Marianne could have died because
of the amount of ecstasy and alcohol
in her system coupled with the heat of the hot tub.
Ecstasy is also known as MDMA.
Now, ma'am, it's true that this hot tub was 107.
They're only supposed to be 104.
That didn't have factor with the body temperature being
that high, with having the high levels of MDMA in her system,
with them being drinking all day,
this had nothing to do with it?
And she was like, no.
She just disregarded that immediately.
But the medical examiner's own autopsy
revealed that Marianne had cardiomegaly,
an enlarged heart, which is a condition
that medical experts say could lead to sudden cardiac death.
48 Hours had some questions and sent
all the autopsy information to Dr. Greg
Davis, a forensic pathologist not involved with the case.
After reviewing the documents, he
said that it was possible Marianne was strangled,
but a valid competing cause of death
is sudden cardiac death due to mixed drug intoxication,
a lethal mix of MDMA, alcohol, and marijuana
with a contribution from underlying heart disease.
He said there was no way he would have called
Marianne's death a homicide.
If it were up to him, he wrote, he'd "classify her manner
of death as 'undetermined.'"
Please make sure when you go--
But no medical experts testified for the defense.
No one did, not even Marcus.
He wanted to testify bad.
He wanted to get across, but I didn't
think it'd be productive.
The trial moved swiftly.
Jury selection started on a Monday,
and by late Friday afternoon, April 8, 2022,
the case went to the jury.
Time to deliberate, what are you thinking?
I had peace, man.
I had peace over, really, the whole thing.
Deliberations began and ended just like that.
Less than an hour ago goes by.
There's a verdict.
38 minutes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My first impression was he did it.
He committed this murder, and whatever
they tell me is not going to prove
to me that he didn't do it.
Tyisha Davis was juror number 11.
Why did you think that?
Because the professor was his girlfriend,
and Clark Heindel was a 70-something-year-old man.
He couldn't have murdered her.
I knew Marcus did it.
I just knew he did it.
As a count one--
The top charge was felony murder, and the verdict was--
Not guilty.
--not guilty.
Verdicts on the other charges followed in quick succession.
And it's just not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty.
With each one, my heart just sunk lower and lower.
I thought there was no way that he could get off.
We were in utter shock.
Everyone was shocked.
And of course, I looked over at Marcus,
and he's got a smirk on his face.
And my blood was boiling.
How does Tyisha explain her change of heart?
I felt like the prosecuting attorney,
she painted the picture that Marcus Lillard was a womanizer.
He was a narcissist.
But they didn't prove that he was a killer.
What do you think happened to Marianne Shockley that night?
I don't know what happened.
That frustrated me because we don't
know what happened to her.
Or if she really was strangled, if she died from strangulation,
who strangled her?
So it sounds like you even question if there was
a murder in the first place.
I have my doubts about that.
Judge Alison Burleson also had doubts,
but they were of a different nature.
Mr. Lillard, I've come to quite a different conclusion
than what the jury has come to.
It is quite clear to this court that the only person
you were concerned with that night, May 11, 2019,
was yourself.
She immediately found that Marcus violated his probation
for that 2015 drug conviction, and he was remanded to prison.
Well, my conscience is very clear
when it comes to Marianne.
Do I miss Marianne?
Yeah.
I was lucky to get that time with her that I did,
and I cherish that.
I think of Marianne every single day.
I have her name on my bracelet.
I'm wearing her earrings right now.
Marianne was the most beautiful spirit.
She worked hard.
She cared about things that other people didn't care about,
the teeny-weeny creatures that keep us alive,
that keep our world turning.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The doorbell rings, two men at the door.
She goes to close the door on them.
They force themselves in with guns.
They take her by force.
They hooded me as soon as I went into the van.
A deputy chases them down.
I open the rear door of the van.
It scared me, so I jumped back.
And I shut the door.
48 Hours, Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.
[MUSIC PLAYING]