Marco Allen Chapman (September 4, 1971 – November 21, 2008) was a convicted murderer and the last person executed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was executed on November 21, 2008, by lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky. Chapman was executed for a series of murders he committed on August 23, 2002, in Warsaw, Kentucky, on Weldon Way, killing two children, Chelbi Sharon, 7, and Cody Sharon, 6, by stabbing after he had raped and stabbed their mother, Carolyn Marksberry, the city clerk of Warsaw at the time, over 15 times. 10-year-old Courtney Sharon played dead after she had also been stabbed by Chapman several times, and escaped.Mark Pitsch. Two Gallatin Children Killed in Knife Attack; Mom, Sister Hurt; Suspect Arrested in West Virginia. August 24, 2002. Courier-Journal. Louisville, Ky.
Early life Marco Allen Chapman was born in West Virginia on September 4, 1971. Both of his parents were alcoholics. His father was sexually abusive and would often beat him until he was unconscious. His mother whacked him many times in the head with a skillet. Chapman was suicidal as a child and began abusing drugs as a result. Chapman suffered from depression, suffered from flashbacks and hallucinations, and, according to a court motion, showed symptoms of bipolar disorder. Chapman dropped out of school in the 8th grade.
The federal government had convicted Chapman of a bank robbery in Texas. While serving his sentence at FCI Oakdale, in Oakdale, Chapman was known as "the kid". He held a job in the paint shop which paid him 19 cents an hour, and was a good worker. He was well liked by his peers in prison and for the most part abided by the rules and stayed out of trouble. Those who knew him in prison described him as a nice, responsible individual.Hannah, Jim. Death Penalty Sought in Stabbing. September 26, 2002. Cincinnati Enquirer.
Chapman previously worked in construction and as a soccer coach.
Chapman's last known address was in Warsaw, but the Boone County Sheriff's Office said he had been staying at a home on Beaver Road in Boone County.
Murders of Cody and Chelbi Sharon On August 23, 2002, some time between 4:10 a.m. and 5:49 a.m., Chapman knocked on Carolyn Marksberry's door on Weldon Way, waking her up, and asking to use her telephone. Carolyn let Chapman in.
Chapman had previously played cards with Carolyn's family, and helped with some home improvement work at her house. Chapman claimed he and "Carolyn had been involved in a sexual relationship for about a year", and that he knew Chuck Marksberry, Carolyn's husband, was working out of the country. Chapman admitted going to Carolyn's home armed with a knife, but he said he planned to have consensual sex with her, and had only premeditated the robbery. After they had consensual sex, according to Chapman, Carolyn "raised all kinds of hell" when he told her that he was going to steal from her.
Carolyn Marksberry had been counseling her best friend, unnamed, to get out of an abusive relationship with Chapman. The friend lived within yards of the Marksberry home on Weldon Way. Ms. Marksberry's unidentified friend often spent the night at the Marksberry home since she was afraid of Chapman.
Immediately after Carolyn let Chapman in, he punched her in the stomach, and pulled out a knife he had in his duffel bag, "put a knife to [Carolyn's] throat," and demanded of Carolyn to give him money.Jim Hannah, Randy McNutt & Cindy Schroeder. August 24, 2002. Mother, Children Stabbed, Two Fatally: Woman Urged Friend to Break Up with Suspect. Cincinnati Enquirer. Carolyn gave Chapman all of her credit cards and all of her cash, which amounted to about $120. Chapman then "bounded her hands with duct tape, tied her to the bed frame, and raped her". He used the cord he had cut from her vacuum cleaner, and apologized to Carolyn for cutting the cord, before sexually assaulting her. Chapman stabbed Carolyn repeatedly, even going to the kitchen to get more knives after breaking two during the attack. Chapman stabbed Carolyn a total of 15 times with a knife that broke off in her chest, and then he "attacked her children."
Marksberry's youngest child, her son, Cody, 6, was awakened by the noise, and came into the bedroom during the attack, and told his mother he'd had a bad dream. Carolyn told Cody to return to bed and to turn on the light, so he would not be afraid. Cody, instead, went into Courtney Sharon's room, awakening his 10-year-old sister. According to Linda Tally Smith, Cody said, "I think Mom needs help. Mom's hurt." Courtney had already been awakened by her mother's cries for help. Courtney went into the hallway to find her younger brother Cody saying their mother was hurt. Courtney and Cody met Chapman coming out of the bedroom. He told them that their mother was hurt, and that they needed to call an ambulance. Chapman then attacked Courtney Sharon. He missed Courtney's throat, slashing her ear instead. Courtney Sharon fell to the floor and played dead. Courtney peeked and saw Chapman stab her brother Cody with a serrated-edged knife, and then saw Cody fall "to the ground."
Chapman then went to Chelbi's room to kill her. Chelbi Sharon, 7, tried to fight him, but he slit her throat too. "Their throats were slashed and they bled to death," Kentucky State Police Detective Todd Harwood said. Both Cody Sharon, 6, and Chelbi Sharon, 7, had their throats slit, and they also had many stab wounds in their bodies. While still tied up on the bed, Carolyn Marksberry listened to the horror. "She could hear her kids screaming."
Courtney told Cody she was going for help. Courtney grabbed Cody's hand and said, "I gotta go get help." Cody responded, "No, don't leave me." Courtney said, "I'll be there in a minute. I'll be back." Courtney ran out the back door to a neighbor's house.
After killing Chelbi, Chapman had heard the back door bang, and came back out. That's when he saw that Courtney Sharon was gone. Chapman took more things out of the house, and then fled.
When Chapman left, Carolyn Marksberry, in the nude, and bleeding badly, gnawed through her restraints, and jerked loose from the vacuum cord binding her to the bed. Carolyn crawled over Cody's slain body, and eventually made it to a neighbor's house. Carolyn crawled to the neighbor's porch, and used her head to bang on the door."
Neighbors told police they heard tires squealing near the Weldon Way residence about 5 a.m. The initial call was heard by Gallatin County's 911 dispatch at 6 a.m. Warsaw Police Chief Donnie Gould was the first officer on the scene.
Linda Tally Smith, the Commonwealth's lead prosecutor in Gallatin and Boone County, said she thinks that Chapman was a crack cocaine abuser coming off a crack binge, and had targeted Marksberry for robbery; in part because he probably knew that her husband was out of town for job training. "He basically was just desperate for money," Smith said. Chuck Marksberry, Carolyn's husband, was coming back from a trip to Spain for the steel company employer he was working for, and was en route back to Cincinnati when the attack took place.
Courtney Sharon, 10, was wounded, and taken to Children's Hospital in Cincinnati. Carolyn Marksberry had many stab wounds and a collapsed lung, and was in critical condition. "Her wounds were deep," Sandra Miller, a University of Cincinnati surgeon, said. "[There were] cuts to her neck and trachea. She had a collapsed lung due to a stab wound to the chest, but the lung has re-expanded now." Carolyn also suffered "eye trauma." Carolyn Marksberry underwent 5 hours of emergency surgery.
Arrest Chapman was arrested later the same day at 12:30 p.m. in Shrewsbury, West Virginia, approximately 8 hours after the attack.
At his Boone County home, Chapman dropped off the Geo he was driving, and swapped it out with his friend's gray 1992 Dodge Dakota. After cleaning himself up, Chapman left a note telling his friend that he was taking the Dakota out to "get a load of firewood". This gray 1992 Dodge Dakota is what Chapman was driving when authorities caught him that day. The police found blood on Chapman's clothes, a bloody knife in the gray 1992 Dodge Dakota, and blood in the Geo, which was parked in Boone County. After being picked up by the authorities in West Virginia, Chapman confessed to the crimes on tape.
To the authorities in West Virginia, Chapman said he was "gonna go get some party materials and park out in the woods somewhere and die". Chapman asked one of the police officers, "How about doing me a favor and put a bullet in my forehead?"
Chapman was arraigned in Charleston, W.V., charged with 5 charges (2 counts of murder, 2 counts of assault, and 1 count of burglary), and extradited to Kentucky.
District Judge Charles Moore sends the felony case immediately to the Grand Jury. Chapman pleaded not guilty to the five charges, and was being held at the Carroll County Regional Detention Center on a $50 million bond.
Criminal trial and death sentence Detective Harwood, the detective who transported Chapman back to Kentucky, said that Chapman had shown no remorse for the crimes he was charged with before the preliminary hearing. Detective Harwood said Chapman made jokes about raping his next cellmate, and suggested the best route to take to get back to Warsaw.
John Delaney was the public defender appointed to represent Chapman. Jim Gibson, a death-penalty specialist in the public defender's office in Frankfort, assisted John Delaney. Linda Tally Smith said she may seek the death penalty.
When a police officer was testifying about how Carolyn Marksberry had to crawl over the lifeless body of her 6 year old son Cody, Chapman bowed his head down, and wept.
"To this day, I still don't know why. I don't know exactly what happened that night," Chapman said. "I did something that was immoral and wrong. I want to pay the price for it."
On January 15, 2004, during a routine transfer for a pretrial hearing in Boone County, Chapman managed to unshackle his legs, and tried to run away, by running across the parking lot. Authorities tackled Chapman within 10 yards of his starting spot, his hands still cuffed, and chained at the waist. Chapman would later on explain that his mission was to provoke the police into killing him on the spot.
Chapman changed his plea to guilty, and asked to be put to death. In October 2004, Chapman wrote to Boone County Judge Anthony Frohlich he wanted to fire his attorneys, end any legal proceedings to prevent his execution, and be sentenced to death. Judge Frohlich urged Chapman not to give up his right to a trial.
Chapman wrote that his guilt was "too much for" him "to bear," and that he wanted "the Marksberrys to feel that justice has been served with my death." Chapman hoped his execution would "free the Marksberry family from the nightmares he inflicted on them".
One possible argument the defense had prepared was to point out Chapman's "wretched childhood", which could have saved him from the death penalty. Chapman himself argued that his troubled life was no excuse for his crimes.
On December 7, 2004, Judge Frohlich determined that Chapman was mentally competent, and that his requests were ones of a mentally stable man. In one document alone, he had to provide his signature for each of his 13 constitutional rights that he waived as part of his desire to be executed.Rutledge, Mike. Murderer Pleads, Wants Death. December 8, 2004. Cincinnati Enquirer. Frohlich then ordered Delaney and Gibson, Chapman's court appointed lawyers, to remain on standby in case Chapman needed counsel. Delaney objected, saying he wanted no part in Chapman's "suicide". Frohlich ordered them to act as standby counsel.