News
Man Convicted Of Killing OU Student Seeks Sentence Reduction
By: Steve Robb | Athens Messenger
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A Glouster man who has spent 30 years in prison for the slaying of an Ohio University student has applied for commutation of his sentence.
Everett Wayne Marks, 59, filed the request July 24, according to a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The Messenger was unable Friday to obtain a copy of the request to determine the specifics of what Marks is asking.
In April, Marks contacted the Athens County Clerk of Courts office seeking documents from his case file.
“I am in need of a copy of my indictment,” Marks wrote. “I am going to file for clemency.”
Marks was convicted of the 1983 aggravated murder of Shawn Myers, who was shot from another vehicle while driving on Route 13 near Millfield. Marks also was convicted of felonious assault in connection with another shooting incident the same night in which shots were fired at another vehicle but no one was injured.
Marks was sentenced to life in prison on the aggravated murder conviction and 8-15 years on the felonious assault, plus two three-year sentences because a gun was used in the crimes, The Messenger reported at the time.
Myers, from Zanesville, was killed as he and his girlfriend were driving on Route 13 late at night on their way back to Athens from an early Christmas celebration. They were chased down Route 13 after a chance encounter with Marks and another man, Larry Sabo, in the Corning area. Myers was killed by a shotgun blast as Sabo pulled his car alongside Myers’ vehicle.
Myers was driving when he was shot and his car flipped over. His girlfriend was able to slip out of the car and hide in a ditch while Sabo was turning his car around to return to the scene of the shooting. She testified at Marks’ trial that she heard sounds of celebration after the men returned to the crashed car.
A witness in the Marks trial was Cecil Russell Jr., a Glouster juvenile who also was in Sabo’s car at the time of the shooting. Marks asserted at his trial that the fatal shot was fired by Russell.
Prosecutors had originally sought the death penalty against Marks. He is scheduled to have his first parole hearing in 2026, according to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website.
The Ohio Parole Board will make a recommendation to the governor on Marks’ request for commutation of his sentence.
According to the department, Marks was denied a pardon in 2011 by then-governor Ted Strickland.
Sabo is currently in prison after pleading no contest to complicity to aggravated murder in the Myers shooting and complicity to attempted aggravated murder in connection with the other shooting incident. His next parole hearing is in 2021, according to the website.