BELL COUNTY, Texas — Cedric Marks is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Jenna Scott and her friend Michael Swearingin in Temple on Jan. 3, 2019. He was arrested a few weeks later and booked into the Bell County Jail on Feb. 3, 2019.
Since that time, Marks has won the right to represent himself at the trial which has let to many complications for prosecutors. He is now forcing the county to find a way to provide him at least seven terabytes of documents and videos so he can prepare for his trial and the county is still figuring out how to do so.
In the court hearings since April, Marks has made multiple "discovery requests" or requests for information relevant to his defense. As an inmate in Bell County Jail, he cannot keep case files or information in his cell or on his person. The county must set up an offline laptop several times a week to allow Marks to look at court documents so he can make notes and build his defense.
While the laptop's capacity is only 400 gigabytes, Marks has now requested at least seven terabytes of information. A terabyte is 1000 gigabytes, so it is more than 17 times the amount if information that would fit on the computer.
This puts Bell County in a difficult situation. On one hand, just a single terabyte of information is easily several million pages of documents or hundred of hours of video. It would be impossible for one person to go though the information in the few months before the trial. On the other hand, Marks has a right to access discovery information if he is to get a fair trial.
Legal Expert Liz Mitchell told 6 News Marks has a right to effective representation, and even if he fails to provide such representation for himself that opens the door for an appeal.
"He could essentially, even though he is defending himself, be ineffective. The defendant is entitled to effective defense. If he is ineffective that could be an issue for an appeal," Mitchell said.
The situation has required Judge Steve Duskie to ensure that Marks will have access to discovery information so he can build a defense.
Duskie spoke to prosecutors Friday about the possibility of Marks getting a large, portable hard drive so that Marks can have also his information in one place. Duskie also suggested the possibility of the county putting everything Marks needed, including paper documents, in one specific room that will be available until the end of the trial.
Prosecutor Stephanie Newell said the laptop they provided to Marks has actually crashed in the past because of the amount of information, but didn't have a solution in place yet. Duskie made it clear that the prosecution needed to find a solution.
"Figure out ways to get things done rather than not get things done," Duskie said.
Duskie said he was hoping to send out jury notices by the end of August, and hopes the trial could move forward at that point.
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