Updated at 5:53 p.m. Friday, May 15 Jurors are now deciding whether the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Rodney Marshall murdered two Lawrence men and attempted to murder several law enforcement officers during an alleged crime spree four years ago. The Douglas County jury of seven women and five men got the case shortly before 12:45 p.m. Friday — with nine felony counts to consider — and ...
Closing arguments in Rodney Marshall's double-murder trial that were scheduled to be heard Thursday afternoon are now slated for Friday morning in Douglas County District Court. The schedule change was due to the court and parties needing more time to complete jury instructions. Sixteen jurors heard five days of evidence before the defense rested on Wednesday. Four of those jurors are alternates in the event ...
After double-murder defendant Rodney Marshall declined to testify on Wednesday, the defense rested its case on the eighth day of his trial, and jurors will soon begin deliberations. "I am hesitantly not going to take the stand in my own defense," Marshall, under oath, told Judge Amy Hanley outside of the jury's presence. Marshall seemed initially uncertain that the decision was his alone to make until Hanley ...
During Rodney Marshall's police-station confession to fatally shooting two Lawrence men, he took a break to call his mother in California. "It's been a weird week, Mom," he says, in a 2022 video seen by jurors Tuesday at his double-murder trial. "I got into some legal trouble out here in Kansas." He tells his mom he loves her and doesn't want her to have a heart attack. After a stretch of silence on the video ...
A trio of Douglas County judges and others associated with the county's three specialty courts gathered Tuesday to celebrate National Treatment Court Month with a tree planting on the lawn in front of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center. Tim Shoulderblade, a 2024 graduate of the Drug Court program, told a noontime crowd how the specialty court had made a huge difference in his life, turning him from a path ...
Joshua Mayo thought that telling on fellow inmates for possessing contraband in the jail might be a substantial and compelling reason to get a lighter sentence for himself — probation instead of prison — but a Douglas County judge on Monday disagreed and ordered Mayo to 15 months in prison. As the Journal-World reported, Mayo was listed as a witness in the cases of two inmates who've been charged with ...