Robert Marks Sentenced to Life in Jail for Murdering Lyntell Washington

Two months after a Louisiana jury took simply 35 minutes to convict a former assistant principal of murdering a former “Instructor of the 12 months,” the killer was sentenced to life behind bars.

Robert Marks, a 45-year-old former assistant principal in Baton Rouge, was sentenced Thursday to serve the remainder of his life in jail with out the potential for parole after jurors discovered him responsible in December 2021 on expenses together with second-degree homicide, kidnapping, and first-degree feticide.

The sufferer within the case, 40-year-old Lyntell Washington, was seven months pregnant with Marks’ little one and was declared a lacking individual by authorities again in June 2016. On the time, a lady found the trainer’s 3-year-old daughter wandering a parking zone close to her mom’s blood-spattered automotive. Detectives with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Workplace started investigating her disappearance, studying that she was pregnant on the time she went lacking and that she had been having an affair with Marks. Marks was reportedly married to a different girl on the time of the homicide.

Every week later, deputies found Washington’s physique in an irrigation ditch at a sugarcane subject. The coroner’s report listed her reason behind demise as a single gunshot wound to the pinnacle and used DNA information to determine the sufferer because of the extreme decomposition of the physique.

Marks was initially arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping and little one desertion two days after the invention of Washington’s physique. Deputies introduced these expenses after talking to the case’s star witness: Washington’s 3-year-old daughter.

The report states that the toddler informed deputies, “Mr. Robbie’ damage [her mother] and now [her mother] was sleeping.” The toddler will also be heard saying, “Mr. Robbie did this” and “mommy went to sleep” in the course of the 911 name made by the lady who first found the wandering little one. WAFB first obtained the audio of that decision.

In October, a grand jury indicted Marks on second-degree homicide and feticide expenses for the deaths of Washington and her unborn little one. The coroner had reportedly accomplished a full post-mortem of the sufferer by that point and recognized Marks as the daddy of Washington’s unborn little one.

Authorities stated Marks informed them he had met with Washington on the evening she disappeared however stated the 2 had a short dialog in an area Walmart parking zone and went their separate methods, with that being the final time he ever noticed Washington.

However investigators stated they discovered mobile phone information positioned Washington with Marks for for much longer than quarter-hour. These information ultimately led police to conclude that Marks probably shot Washington at a landfill in East Baton Rouge, put her physique within the automotive together with her daughter, drove to the following county over to get rid of the physique, after which deserted the car and Washington’s daughter in a parking zone.

Marks and the protection have been later capable of delay the trial by arguing deputies had no manner of figuring out the homicide of Washington occurred. The decide ultimately sided with the protection and moved the case to neighboring Iberville Parish, the place deputies found the physique. This required prosecutors in that district to construct the case towards Marks from scratch. Lastly, in 2020, members of the grand jury in Iberville Parrish indicted Marks on expenses of second-degree homicide, feticide, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping of a kid, obstruction of justice, and 4 counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

Bail within the case was reset to $885,000, which Marks was capable of publish.

Marks’ homicide trial ultimately obtained underway in December of final yr, with prosecutors calling Washington’s now-9-year-old daughter to the stand early on within the proceedings. The younger lady reportedly answered simply two questions from prosecutors whereas on the stand, first figuring out a photograph of her mom after which confirming she was, in reality, the person in a 2016 video that exhibits a toddler figuring out “Mr. Robbie” as the person who made “mommy fall asleep” after a “loud bang.”

Later, the coroner who examined Washington’s physique testified that her unborn little one suffered no trauma and stated medical professionals would have been capable of safely ship the child because the sufferer had been in her last trimester.

The protection argued that no homicide weapon had ever been discovered and questioned the testimony of Washington’s daughter, who on the time spoke of seeing her mom put in a lake. Marks’ attorneys, nevertheless, didn’t name any witnesses or ship a closing argument.

Jurors started deliberating after 4 days of testimony. They took simply 35 minutes to convict Marks of second-degree homicide, feticide, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping of a kid, carjacking, obstruction of justice, and 4 counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

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