Stephen A. Marshall

Case record: Stephen A. Marshall

Status

Stephen A. Marshall committed suicide by shooting himself in the head when cornered by police on a bus on 16 April 2006. He was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center as a result of a massive head wound.

Timeline

• 8:15 a.m. (16 April 2006) — Stephen A. Marshall shot William Elliott at his home in Corinth, Maine.
• 3:00 a.m. (16 April 2006) — Stephen A. Marshall shot Joseph Gray at his home in Milo, Maine.
• 8:00 p.m. (16 April 2006) — Stephen A. Marshall committed suicide with a Colt 45 on a bus outside terminal when Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority police stopped and surrounded the bus.
• 11:24 p.m. (16 April 2006) — Stephen A. Marshall was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center as a result of a massive head wound.
• April 16, 2006 — Early in the morning Stephen left Houlton in his father’s pick-up truck with three guns and his laptop computer.

Background

Stephen A. Marshall was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His birth date was 9 August 1985. He was 20 years old at the time of the shootings and his death on 16 April 2006.

Marshall’s family moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, when he was a child. His parents divorced in 1996. In 1999, Marshall moved in with his father in Culdesac, Idaho, where his father Ralph served three years as mayor.

Marshall was described as a 20-year old Canadian; he lived in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and had come to Maine for the first time to meet his father.

Other details: family, residence, and personal background

Marshall’s mother was Margaret. His father was Ralph Marshall. His step-dad was Keith Miles. His half-sister and her family were in Phoenix, Arizona, where Marshall lived for a period of time. Marshall lived in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and in nearby Louisbourg. Later he lived in Whitney Pier, Sydney, Nova Scotia in January-February 2005. In April-May 2005 he moved into an apartment on Regent Street, North Sydney.

The case material stated that investigators had not been able to make any personal link between Marshall and the two dead men.

The offence

Maine police found two registered sex offenders shot to death in towns 25 miles apart.

The victims were:

• Joseph L. Gray, 57, of Milo
• William Elliott, 24, of Corinth

Marshall shot Joseph Gray at his home in Milo, Maine at 3:00 a.m. (16 April 2006). He shot William Elliott at his home in Corinth, Maine at 8:15 a.m. (16 April 2006).

The case material also described that Marshall drove by the homes of four other registered Maine pedophiles.

The shootings prompted officials to take the Maine Sex Offender Registry Web site off-line.

Weapons and preparation (as described in the case material)

Marshall left Houlton in his father’s pick-up truck with three guns and his laptop computer. The guns were:

• Ruger handgun
• Colt 45 semi-automatic handgun
• .223 Colt Sporter semi-automatic rifle (AR 15 assault style rifle)

Later investigation of the laptop he had brought with him indicated that he had gone to the residences of four other sex offenders.

The material stated that Marshall took a .45 handgun from his father because his car had broken down during the drive to Maine.

Investigation

Maine police quickly zeroed in on a suspect and a daylong manhunt followed through three states.

Investigators planned to examine Marshall’s laptop computer and personal papers Marshall had with him when he died.

The case material described that police in Massachusetts had not examined the contents of the laptop, saying they wanted to preserve its information and planned to hand it over to investigators from Maine.

Investigators said there was no indication of what may have driven Marshall to allegedly gun down two sex offenders in Maine before turning the gun on himself.

Quotations:

• Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said:

  “We will try to establish what is the link between these three men but as of tonight there's no known connection,”

• Sgt. Stephen Pickering, the supervisor of the homicide investigation, said:

  “The families of the murder victims want to know why, and it also impacts how we maintain our sex offender registry, on a political level,” “The attorney general's office wants to know why this happened.”

• Sgt. Stephen Pickering also said:
• Sgt. Stephen Pickering said:
• Sgt. Stephen Pickering said:

  “I hope to have some further clues once crime labs examine Marshall's laptop computer -- which may contain e-mails, notes or other records of Marshall's interest in the Internet sex offenders registry.”

• Sgt. Stephen Pickering said:

  “I don't suspect anything much will happen with the registry. It would be remiss to change it,''

• Sgt. Stephen Pickering said:

  “I see a benefit in it in that it allows people to adjust their lives. It's a benefit to people with children.”

Quotations:

• Maine Public Safety Department spokesperson Stephen McCausland said:

  “We have no connection that we have been able to find between the three men,” “So far there's been no paper trail we've found.”

Quotations:

• Marshall’s stepfather Keith Miles said:

  “A lot of his teenage years were spent down there, so how would we know if anything would happen to Stephen that would trigger this?”

• Keith Miles also said:

  “We have no information on that. We don't know every moment of his history.”

Arrest and death

Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority police stopped and surrounded a bus on 16 April 2006 where Marshall was riding to Boston. The material described that Marshall was seated 13 rows behind the driver.

When police boarded the bus, Marshall pulled a .45 caliber handgun and shot himself in the head.

When paramedics arrived, they found a second handgun in Marshall’s possession.

No one else on the bus was injured, but five passengers who were splattered with blood were taken to area hospitals to be examined.

Marshall was pronounced dead at 11:24 p.m. (16 April 2006) at Boston Medical Center as a result of a massive head wound.

Sentencing

No sentencing outcome was described for Stephen A. Marshall because he died by suicide during the police response.

Outcome

Stephen A. Marshall died by suicide after being cornered by police following the shootings of Joseph L. Gray and William Elliott in Maine.

Aftermath and related reporting

The material stated that Maine’s Department of Public Safety announced that it had no plans to change its online registry in light of what happened.

The case material also referenced sex offender registry systems in other jurisdictions:

• It stated that in the United States, almost all states posted sex offender information online.
• It referenced a previous case in Washington State involving Michael Anthony Mullen, 35, who pleaded guilty in March to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to more than 44 years in prison.
• It stated that in Canada, sex offender registries were set up for police use but were off limits to the public.
• It stated that Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised tougher controls on sex offenders but said he had no plans to make their names public.

  “I think it's up to the police to protect us from offenders,” Harper said at a news conference in Burnaby, B.C. on Tuesday. “I'm not sure that that's a function we want to have just dealt with on the streets.”

Other details: prior allegations and juvenile history (as stated in the case material)

Marshall was described as having been arrested in Idaho in the spring of 2001 for threatening another youth with an assault rifle. The record showed that he retrieved an AR-15, .223 semi-automatic rifle, returned to the front door, and told the one subject to let his friend go.

Paul McNish, the patrol lieutenant for Nez Perce County, said:

“He went into (his father's) house and retrieved an AR-15, .223 semi-automatic rifle, returned to the front door and told the one subject to let his friend go,”

The case material also stated that Marshall was charged with felony aggravated assault when he was 15 on April 24, 2001, after breaking up a scuffle in front of his house with an AR-15 assault rifle in hand.

Quotations:

• Margaret Miles, Marshall’s mother, cautioned against drawing conclusions from one past incident and said:

  “It's so simplistic to look for an answer and just look at one thing. If we have a chance to look at this and we ever learn the truth, it could be a series of things, it could be a combination of things, it could be things we're not even aware of,''

The material stated that Marshall appeared in court for sentencing on July 27, 2001, and was placed on probation for six months, ordered to attend a hunter’s safety course, write an apology letter and five-page paper on teen violence.

The case material stated that James R. Phillips Ph.D. conducted mental health evaluation on August 10 & 16, 2001 as part of probation. The evaluation included:

• “Mr. Marshall's responses do suggest that he often somewhat questioning of authority and distrusting of the motivations of others. He is likely to be quite introspective and calculating in his actions.”
• “No significant psychopathology is present that would have any impact on Mr. Marshall's ability to comply with the conditions of his Informal Adjustment, or contribute to the likelihood of his commitment of future crimes.”

Marshall wrote a five-page paper on teen violence as part of probation requirements on August 19, 2001, entitled Guns And Their Relation To Juvenile Crime, and it cited the NRA as one of his sources.

Detailed dated background (from the timeline in the case material)

• May 4, 1948 — Joseph Lewis Gray born.
• July 10, 1981 — William Elliot born.
• August 9, 1985 — Stephen A. Marshall born in Fort Worth, Texas.
• 1988 — Stephen and parents Margaret and Ralph moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
• 1992 — Joseph Lewis Gray convicted in Massachusetts in 1992 of raping a child and indecent assault and battery on a person under 14.
• Summer 1993 — Stephen went to live with grandparents in Arizona; his mother Margaret and six-week old sister Sarah also moved down to Arizona later in the fall. Stephen’s father stayed in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.
• 1996-1997 — Stephen attended Malcolm Monroe middle school until March; during the last several weeks of the school year, his mother removed him after bullying incidents.
• Summer-Fall 1999 — Stephen moved to Culdesac, Idaho to live with his father; Ralph was Executive Director of the Clearwater Economic Development Corporation and was voluntary mayor of Culdesac. Stephen attended grades nine, ten and eleven at Culdesac High School.
• 2000 — 14-yr-old Stephen set up his own website; it linked to “sweetist pics of weapons that you can find anywhere” and listed “personal dislikes” including “minorities getting special treatment, men who don't keep their women in line, Asthma.women in general, the beautiful people, my job, cleaning, school, society, the disgusting commercialization of our daily lives, the economic system, capitalism (But it'll do for now), rich people, the United Nations, a world government, the feds, the man and his rules, civil oppression, the "Patriot Act" of 2001.”
• 2001 — A clique called “Slacker's Coalition in Arms” was founded by Stephen and friends; “main goal is to provide advice for protecting yourself from the tyrannical educational institution.” Stephen’s friend and classmate Kris Peterson Jr. was charged with molesting a minor; he received counseling and was put on probation.
• April 24, 2001 — Stephen charged by police with felony aggravated assault afterbreaking up a scuffle in front of his house, AR 15 assault rifle in hand.
• July 27, 2001 — Stephen appeared in court for sentencing; placed on probation for six months, ordered to attend a hunter's safety course, write an apology letter and five-page paper on teen violence.
• August 10 & 16, 2001 — James R. Phillips Ph.D. conducted mental health evaluation of Stephen as part of his probation.
• August 19, 2001 — Stephen wrote five-page paper on teen violence as part of probation requirements; entitled Guns And Their Relation To Juvenile Crime.
• March 20, 2002 — William Elliott charged with “sexual abuse of a minor.”
• June 12, 2002 — William Elliott convicted; incarcerated for four months at Penobscot County Jail in Maine.
• June 5, 2002 — Kris Dee Peterson Sr. (father of Kris Peterson Jr.) arrested for sexually abusing two minors; later pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and was given two consecutive 15 year sentences and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution for each count.
• Summer-Fall 2002 — Stephen Marshall moved to Phoenix, Arizona to live with his half-sister and her family; he attended senior year at Desert Vista High School in Arizona.
• Spring-Summer 2003 — Stephen visited his mother for the first time since leaving Nova Scotia four years earlier; he also visited his father, now living with his first wife, in Colorado.
• May-June, 2003 — Stephen’s old high school friend, Chance Coombes, had sex with an underage girl at a friend's house in Fort Collins, Colorado; he was charged with sexual assault on a child; he later pleaded guilty to intimidating a witness and third degree assault. The material stated it was not known whether Stephen met Chance when they were both in Colorado.
• September 2003 — Stephen moved back to Nova Scotia to live with his mom and attended computer course at Memorial High School, North Sydney.
• December 2003 — Canadian military informed Stephen that it cannot accept him because of his asthma.
• August 2004 — Stephen saw psychiatrist twice for depression, canceled next meetings.
• January-February 2005 — Stephen Marshall moved into a rooming house in Whitney Pier, Sydney, Nova Scotia.
• April 9, 2005 — Convicted Cape Breton pedophile Francis Doyle released from prison; resided at rooming house in Whitney Pier, Sydney where Stephen lived.
• April-May 2005 — Stephen moved into apartment on Regent Street, North Sydney.
• Fall 2005 — Ralph visited Stephen in Sydney.
• January 2006 — Friends and family noticed that Stephen was depressed; he fainted at work.
• January 2006 — Stephen and his mother Margaret met with Pastor Kevin Mattatall; Stephen accepted Christ into his life and started attending church regularly.
• April 11, 2006 — Stephen withdrew $500 (Cdn) from his bank account; he withdrew $2657.00 (USD) from his U.S. account leaving a balance of only 61 cents.
• April 12, 2006 — Early in the morning Stephen said good-bye to his housemates, told Courtney and Devon he was going to Baddeck, Cape Breton; instead he headed for Maine to visit his father in that State. He used interac for a purchase at The Source for $1,076.32; Margaret assumed it was the purchase of his laptop computer. He also purchased GPS mapping software. Stephen had car trouble and pulled into the Coastal Inn in Sackville, New Brunswick for the night. He called housemate Dan Devoe, lied, and told him he was in Baddeck visiting grandparents.
• April 13, 2006 — Stephen’s father had been expecting him; Stephen called him to pick him up and drive him to his house in Houlton, Maine.
• April 15, 2006 — Stephen missed scheduled shift at Canton Restaurant in North Sydney where he worked as a dishwasher. Housemate Dan Devoe, expecting Stephen home, called Stephen and left a message on his cellphone; Stephen did not reply.
• April 16, 2006 — Early in the morning Stephen left Houlton in his father’s pick-up truck with three guns and his laptop computer; he then shot and killed Joseph Gray at his home in Milo, Maine at 3:00 a.m.
• April 16, 2006 — At 8:15 a.m.
• April 16, 2006 — Elliott’s girlfriend witnessed the shooting, wrote down the license plate of the pick-up truck and called police. Maine sex offender registry was temporarily taken off-line.
• April 16, 2006 — Stephen ditched his pick-up truck near an ice arena in Bangor, Maine. He dropped ammunition in the toilet tank of the station washroom. Police found the ammunition and confirmed Stephen Marshall bought a bus ticket to Boston. That afternoon Stephen’s mom Margaret and step-dad learned of shootings on TV.

Other individuals named in the case material

• Stephen McCausland — Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman; gave quotations about no known connection and about no paper trail.
• Stephen Pickering — supervisor of the homicide investigation; gave quotations about families, registry impacts, and planned laboratory examination.
• Ralph Marshall — Stephen’s father; served as mayor in Culdesac; owned the pick-up truck and the handgun used as described.
• Margaret — Stephen’s mother; Margaret Miles.
• Keith Miles — Stephen’s step-dad; gave quotations about disbelief and not knowing triggers in teenage years.
• James R. Phillips Ph.D. — conducted mental health evaluation as part of probation; authored quoted report findings.
• Kris Peterson Jr. — charged with molesting a minor; received counseling and was put on probation.
• Kris Dee Peterson Sr. — arrested and later pleaded guilty; father of Kris Peterson Jr.
• Chance Coombes — friend; charged and later pleaded guilty in a separate matter involving a sexual assault on a child.
• Kris Dee Peterson Sr. — received two consecutive 15 year sentences and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution for each count after pleading guilty.
• Francis Doyle — convicted Cape Breton pedophile released from prison; resided at the same rooming house.
• Dan Devoe — housemate; was called by Stephen; Dan Devoe left a message for Stephen before Stephen missed his shift.
• Devon Farrell — housemate; Stephen told Devon he was going to Baddeck.
• Courtney Burton — housemate; Stephen told Courtney he was going to Baddeck.
• Pastor Kevin Mattatall — met with Stephen and his mother and was associated with Stephen’s acceptance of Christ.
• Amy S. Clark — listed in connection with the CBS News headline referenced in the case material.
• Michael Anthony Mullen — referenced in a comparison involving sex offender registries; pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced.
• Joseph L. Gray — victim; 57; described as convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl; born 4 May 1948.
• William Elliott — victim; 24; described as convicted of having sex with a girl under the legal age; born 10 July 1981.
• Harold Babich — not present in the provided text (not included).
• Paul McNish — patrol lieutenant for Nez Perce County; described the AR-15 retrieval incident.

Sex offender registry context for the victims

Joseph Gray’s name was in the sex offender registry because he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. William Elliott was described as convicted of having sex with a girl under the legal age, and the case material stated that Maine’s age of consent was 16.