Cedric Marks trial: Defense rests its case; Marks’ children testifies on threats they saw and heard

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Marks is accused of killing his ex girlfriend, Jenna Scott, 28, and her friend, Michael Swearingin, 32, whose bodies were found on Jan. 15, 2019, in rural Okfusee County, Oklahoma.

Marks, who is representing himself, was arrested on Jan. 8, 2019, in Kent County, Mich., on a Temple burglary warrant stemming from a break-in on Aug. 21, 2018, at Scott’s home.

Monday ended with the defense resting its case. The prosecution is ready to bring in evidence and witnesses to rebut claims made during the trial.

Marks’ rebuttal witnesses were people who are close to him.

Marks virtually called is 17-year-old son to the stand, Logan, who he shares with Ginell McDonough.

Marks made a point to ask if Logan if he was instructed to lie to protect him and he denied this.

“You basically said to just tell the truth,” said the 17-year-old.

Logan testified seeing Scott being violent and threatening toward Marks and not the other way around. “I really didn’t like her,” said Logan.

“She was screaming at you through the car window, eventually, she laid under the car. Then, you let her in and she was waving her arms at you aggressively,” said Logan.

The prosecution brought up Logan’s statement to police once Marks was arrested in 2019.

He said he remembers hearing Marks threaten Swearingin on the phone of cutting his head off.

“Because he (Swearingin) kept calling him (Marks), and he didn’t want him to call him,” said Logan.

In the statement, Logan also mentioned Marks’ 2018 burglary charge from breaking into Scott’s house. He said Marks told him that he was going to Texas to convince Scott to drop other charges, but he doesn’t remember saying this in the statement.

Marks argued that Logan didn’t hear Swearingin’s end of the phone call and that the police statement isn’t credible because Logan didn’t sign the document.

Marks also virtually called his other son, Adrien, who he shares with April Pease, a missing woman Marks is charged with murdering.

The prosecution asked Adrien details about Pease that Marks told him and if he knows why she’s missing. “I don’t know where my biological mother is. He would tell me she would do drugs and went missing,” said Adrien. Marks said it’s “disgusting” the prosecution would ask these questions.

He also stated threatening and violent memories of Scott towards his father.

“She would spit on you after arguing and you told her to stop,” said the 17-year-old.

However, Adrien testified that he remembered a time where Scott said Marks hurt her.

In his police statement after Marks’ arrest, he said Marks grabbed Scott’s arm before and she soiled herself. He said, “It looked like she was just scared.”

But Marks argued that he only reported this incident and didn’t personally see it because Marks told Adrien what happened himself.

Adrien said that he never heard the threat Marks made toward Swearingin and only somewhat knew of him.

“Not really, all I knew is that he was with Jenna. I believe you told me that,” said Adrien.

However, both sons did verify Marks going to Texas with Maxwell in January of 2019, rebuking Marks’ previous claims of never leaving Michigan.

On the other hand, during Marks’ cross examination, both agreed that they did not see Marks or Maxwell cleaning the car or throwing away items once they returned to Michigan from Texas.

Marks recalled on and off girlfriend, Rebecca Adney. Allegedly, the victims were killed in her house in Killeen while she was out of town.

Monday, she revealed that she was with detectives as they searched the whole house, which debunks Marks’ claims of police removing the items she noticed were missing once she returned home.

Since Adney stated she had communications with Marks following the previous cross examination a few weeks ago, the prosecution asked if she’s telling the truth since she “has feelings” for Marks, she said yes.

Marks’ ex-wife, Kristina Marks, took the stand.

She said she and Marks talked New Year’s Eve of 2019 about how depressed he was. This is the night before he allegedly drove down to Texas with Maxwell.

Kristina said she called him several times the next day to check on him. She said, “I was afraid you killed yourself.”

However, when she called him over the next few days, she wasn’t able to reach him. The prosecution alluded to Marks not answering because this is when he was, “kidnapping and killing the victims,” and Marks immediately objected to the claim.

Previous phone records from Marks showed he called Kristina over nine times. Yet, Kristina said she never received those calls. She called her phone carrier to get phone records to prove it, but she explained her carrier wasn’t able to track records that far back.

The prosecution will come with more evidence Tuesday.

The prosecution is also working on a adding a proposed charge, but didn’t say what yet.

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