DeMarcus Smith 288043
Warren Correctional Institution
PO Box 120
Lebanon, Ohio 45036
See Laura Taylor
“There was no reason for me to be out there causing harm. … I was trying to be known,”
Accomplice DeMarcus Smith, 18, pled guilty to 4 of the murders and received four life sentences plus 255 years for 11 other felony charges related to the crime spree. He will not be eligible for parole until 2118. Aura Jeane Taylor, 17, received a life sentence, Heather Matthews, 21, pled guilty and received a life sentence with a 53 year minimum. UPDATE: Marvallous Keene was sentenced to death for the aggravated murders of five victims. The offenses occurred in Dayton, OH on December 24 and 26, 1992. In December 1992, Keene was consorting with a group of people, including several juveniles, who at various times stayed at Bill McIntire’s apartment. This group included Laura Taylor, DeMarcus Smith, Nicholas Woodson, Heather N. Mathews, Wendy Cottrill, Marvin Washington, and Jeffrey Wright. On December 24, 1992, Keene and Taylor enlisted Mathews to help them rob Joseph Wilkerson, an acquaintance of Taylor’s. Taylor told Mathews that she had arranged for the three of them to go to Wilkerson’s house on the pretext of having an orgy with Wilkerson. Mathews agreed to take part in the robbery. Keene, Taylor, and Mathews walked to Wilkerson’s house. After a drink, Wilkerson and Taylor went to the bedroom. After waiting briefly, Keene and Mathews followed them. Wilkerson began to take his clothes off. Taylor and Mathews pretended to do the same. Keene began to remove his own pants, then pulled them back up and drew a gun. He ordered Wilkerson onto the bed, then commanded Taylor and Mathews to tie Wilkerson’s hands to the bed. While Keene watched Wilkerson, Taylor and Mathews went through the house, looking for things to steal. They took a microwave oven, a TV, a cordless phone, a curling iron, and a blow dryer, which they loaded into Wilkerson’s Buick. Wilkerson told Keene that he kept a .32-caliber derringer in the garage. Keene found it and brought it back to the bedroom. Keene subsequently confessed that he shot Wilkerson in the chest with the derringer, after covering him with blankets to muffle the noise. Taylor and Mathews, hearing the shot, returned to the bedroom and saw Keene holding the derringer. Wilkerson’s feet were shaking. Keene handed the derringer to Taylor, but it would not fire again. So Keene gave Taylor his own gun, and Taylor shot Wilkerson in the head. Wilkerson stopped shaking. Keene and his accomplices then left in the Buick. Keene warned his accomplices not to tell Cottrill and Washington. Later that evening, Keene, Taylor, and Smith went walking. Keene and Smith were carrying guns. Keene later confessed to police that, as they were walking, they saw Danita Gullette at a public telephone. Smith and Keene drew their guns, and Smith forced Gullette at gunpoint to take her shoes off. Smith and Keene then shot Gullette. Smith took her shoes and jacket. When they returned to the apartment, Taylor was wearing Gullette’s jacket and Smith was carrying Gullette’s shoes. Later that night, Smith shot Mathews’s boyfriend, Jeffrey Wright, outside 159 Yuma. Keene, Mathews, Taylor, and Smith then left in Wilkerson’s Buick. On December 25, Keene returned to Wilkerson’s house and stole more items, including Wilkerson’s other car, a Pontiac. Also on December 25, Taylor robbed and murdered her former boyfriend, Richmond Maddox. Early in the morning of December 26, Mathews drove the Pontiac to a BP service station, where appellant and Smith stole Kathie Henderson’s car at gunpoint. Appellant and Smith drove off in Henderson’s car; Mathews followed in the Pontiac. Later that morning, Mathews drove the Pontiac to the Short Stop Mini-Mart, with Keene, Smith, and Taylor in the car. Taylor went into the store, then came back to report that there were only two people inside. Mathews handed a .32-caliber revolver to Smith; Smith and Keene were also carrying .25-caliber automatic pistols. Keene and Smith went into the store. Sarah Abraham, whose family owned the store, was working behind the cash register. Keene ordered her at gunpoint to open it. Abraham did so and removed $40, which she handed to Keene. Keene shot Abraham in the head. Several days later, Abraham died of her wound. Smith also shot at two other people, Jones Pettus, a customer, wounding him, and Edward Thompson, a helper, both of whom survived and testified against Keene. Later that day, Taylor and Mathews discussed “jumping” Cottrill because they “thought she was telling on us.” According to Mathews’s testimony, there was no discussion of shooting her. However, in a subsequent conversation with Keene, Taylor, Mathews, and Woodson, Smith said that “he was going to unload a clip in [Marvin Washington’s] ass.” According to Keene’s confession, Smith “thought that Wendy and Marvin were going to snitch about [Smith] shooting Jeff Wright.” The group discussed picking Washington and Cottrill up and taking them “to a park or something.” The group drove to 159 Yuma and picked up Washington and Cottrill. They dropped Woodson off at his home, then drove to a gravel pit. At the gravel pit, Smith ordered Washington out of the car, and Keene dragged Cottrill out. Washington and Cottrill protested that they had not gone to the police or “snitched.” Keene and Smith forced them at gunpoint to walk behind a pile of gravel. There, Keene shot Cottrill, and Smith shot Washington. The grand jury indicted Keene on eight counts of aggravated murder — two counts each for Wilkerson, Washington, and Cottrill; one count each for Gullette and Abraham. The Wilkerson counts each carried six death specifications (course of conduct, escaping detection, two aggravated robbery, two aggravated burglary). The Cottrill counts each carried four death specifications (course of conduct, witness-murder, two kidnapping). The Washington counts each carried three death specifications (course of conduct, witness murder, kidnapping). The Gullette and Abraham counts each carried two death specifications (course of conduct, aggravated robbery). The indictment also included six counts of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated burglary, one count of burglary, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of attempted aggravated murder. All counts carried a firearm specification. Waiving a jury, appellant was tried to a three-judge panel, which found him guilty on all counts. The panel found four death specifications as to Wilkerson’s aggravated murder counts (course of conduct, escaping detection, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary); however, the panel merged the “escaping detection” and felony-murder specifications. The panel found three death specifications on the Cottrill murder (course of conduct, kidnapping-principal offender, witness murder), three on the Washington murder (same), and two on the Gullette and Abraham murders (course of conduct, aggravated robbery). The Wilkerson, Washington, and Cottrill aggravated murder counts were merged so that only one remained for each victim, a total of five. After a mitigation hearing, the panel sentenced appellant to death on each of the five counts. The judgment was affirmed. Accomplice DeMarcus Smith, 18, pled guilty to four of the murders and received four life sentences plus 255 years for 11 other felony charges related to the crime spree. He will not be eligible for parole until 2118.