MMA Fighter Nicknamed ‘Spider Man’ Faces Death After He’s Accused of Killing Ex-Girlfriend and Man
As “Spider Man,” former middleweight MMA fighter Cedric Marks racked up a professional fight record of 31 wins and 27 losses.
As a suspected killer, he now faces the death penalty.
Marks, 45, previously was charged with murder in the deaths of his former girlfriend, Jenna Scott, 28, and her friend, Michael Swearingin, 32, who were killed January 3 at a home in Killeen Texas, according to investigators, reports CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.
Their bodies were discovered Jan. 15 buried in a shallow grave outside a vacant home in Clearview, Oklahoma, an hour south of Tulsa.
On Monday, a prosecutor said the state would pursue capital punishment. “We have filed with the district clerk our notice that we will seek the death penalty in the Cedric Marks case, in connection with the murders of Michael Swearingin and Jenna Scott,” Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza told the Temple Daily Telegram.
An attorney for Marks, Michael White, told the newspaper that his client “was not surprised” by the move and “is anticipating his day in court when his story is told.”
Marks has pleaded not guilty to the killings.
RELATED: MMA Fighter Cedric Marks, Suspected of Multiple Murders,Captured After Escaping Prisoner Van
Last summer, Scott filed for a protective order against Marks, KWTX reported. “He told me he had killed someone in Oklahoma, but that he was able to cover it up and that he could do the same here in Texas,” she alleged in the filing.
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In the court papers — which were first reported on by the Houston Chronicle — Scott described Marks as a “pathological liar,” “master manipulator” and a “psychopath.” She claimed that he bragged about killing animals when he was a child — and alleged that he had choked her at least twice.
“Every time I try to break up with him, he threatens me,” Scott wrote in her application. “I have to stay away from him to stay safe and to protect the people I love.”
RELATED: Bodies of Missing Texas Man and Woman Found Buried in Shallow Graves at Oklahoma Home
She and Swearingin went missing Jan. 4 from Temple, Texas, according to the Temple Police Department.
Marks was arrested Jan. 8 near Grand Rapids, Michigan. He later sparked a nine-hour manhunt after he escaped from a transport van while en route to Texas for his arraignment. K-9 units discovered Marks hiding inside a 55-gallon trash can just two blocks away from where he had escaped.
After the bodies of Scott and Swearingin were found, police in Bloomington, Minnesota, said they would reopen the missing persons case of another one of Marks’ former girlfriends, April Pease, who was last seen in the area in 2009 when she was embroiled in a custody dispute with Marks. Police say he is a person of interest in that case.
