BELL COUNTY, Texas — Jurors are speaking out and giving insight on their decision-making process in the Cedric Marks trial. The former MMA fighter was sentenced to death after a Bell County jury found Marks guilty of capital murder for both Jenna Scott and Michael Swearingin back in 2019.
6 News spoke with the foreperson, Zachary Gauthier, who explained how the jury members had to answer three special questions for the proposed punishments during deliberation.
"One of them was, 'Do we believe he is a continued threat to society?'" Gauthier said. "In his own testimony, in his previous imprisonment, he admitted to getting in multiple fights and things of that nature. We determined very quickly, a 12-0 vote, right away that we all believe that he was a continued threat to society."
Jurors also unanimously agreed Marks was directly involved in making the decision to travel from Michigan to Texas to commit the murders of Scott and Swearingin.
Lastly, the jury had to determine if there were any mitigating circumstances as to why Marks shouldn't get the death penalty.
"The concern was there, the potential abandonment concerns or other issues that may have occurred in his youth or younger years," Gauthier said. "None of it raised to the level that we consider to be significantly mitigating."
They ultimately decided there weren't any circumstances and gave him the harshest punishment.
"All the way through the end he, you know, told the families that you know, they have a right to know well, they do have a right to know, but he's the only one that can tell them exactly what happened," Gauthier explained. "He made the decision to not do that. He can live with that decision for the rest of his life, and he can do it while he's sitting on death row."
"The other thing is, we really had to look at the evidence," another juror said anonymously. "We had to detach any narrative from prosecution or from Marks."
The jury also had to review more than 800 exhibits of evidence. They expressed the key pieces that stood out to them.
"The timeline of the primary, compiling the phone records, the security system with the missing videos, the Hyundai Genesis report of the Blue Link report that was provided for turning the car on at the address of both Michael Swearingin's home and Rebecca Adney's home in Killeen, Texas," Gauthier said. "Once we see that and then the Google account when they match that up with phone records for Cedric Marks, Maya Maxwell, and then the final phone usages of Jenna and Michael's phone, I suspect that that was actually done by Cedric Marks."
Throughout the trial, the jury saw many outbursts from Marks to the judge, prosecution and even witnesses. While members of the jury say they understood Marks was fighting for his life, they also say Marks lied to the jury.
"I believe he's a psychopath, I believe he's narcissistic, and I believe he's manipulative," Gauthier said. "You saw that with Ginell McDonough when he called her back to the stand and his final question to her was, 'Tell the jury something about me.' She said, 'Well, you're a loving father, you care about your kids, and I have no doubt that that's true, but I'm starting to realize that some of it was probably manipulation.' His face said it all in that moment, that he finally lost his grip on all the women that he thought he had his grip on. He lost all his power in that moment. I think that was the moment he decided to testify for himself, and again, we did not allow him to manipulate us as the jurors."
Another suspicion from the jury was Marks could be a serial killer. Gauthier dove into why he thought this was true after a recorded conversation was admitted between Marks and Scott.
Jenna is yelling at Marks saying, 'You tried to kill me,' when Cedric put her in a chokehold intentionally or unintentionally. She said, 'You almost killed me,' and then his response was, 'Well, what are you talking about? I didn't almost try to kill you.' She's like, 'Well, you're a violent murderer.' Again, he goes, 'Well, what are you talking about' She responds with, 'You told me you've killed six or seven people.' That really kind of clicked with me. Cedric Marks introduced this piece of evidence. That's the key there. Investigator Powell now, and I actually have done a fair amount of research over the last couple of days now that I'm allowed to look up the news. I found that there was a testimony by Maya Maxwell that we were not allowed to be part of as a jurors in which she's named off multiple people that Cedric Marks claimed to have killed... kittens and cats, and there were some other things involved from the article that I read. I'm fairly confident that Cedric Marks is, in my opinion, probably a serial killer, and I'm thankful that he will not be able to hurt anybody else from this point forward. I hope that some of his other victims at some point, get some kind of justice or closure. Even if that only comes by way of knowing that he can't hurt anybody else, because of the verdict that we came to, in this case.
Other members of the jury say they hope Marks regrets the decision he made and the actions he took against innocent people. They also touched on how this case will impact Scott's daughter and Marks' children.
"I'm so sorry to the Scott and Swearingin family," one juror said anonymously. "I'm really sorry because Emory didn't have the chance to you know, grow up with her mother."
"As far as the Marks family, that's their father," the juror further explained. "I feel very bad for those boys. They won't necessarily have their father in their life."
As the jury continues to reflect after nearly two months of gut-wrenching testimony, they say they are confident with their decision and commend Scott for speaking up.
"Her story is sad in the end, but because she spoke out you know, five years ago now because she did that, Marks will never hurt another woman, guy, child, whoever ever again," Gauthier said. "It's because Jenna Scott spoke out and fought."
"And what an amazing guy Michael Swearingin was to not allow Jenna to push him away, to say, 'No, you are my friend. I will be here as your friend I will be a safe space for you,'" Gauthier continued. "He just seemed like a big old teddy bear that cared so much about the people in his life, and that included Jenna. I'm glad she was able to at least have a caring person with her even in her final moments."
The victims' families have created a nonprofit in honor of Scott and Swearingin's memory. Priceless Beginnings strives to make a difference in the lives impacted by domestic violence. For more information and how to donate, click here.