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Accused killer's mother speaks in court

BY CARL MACGOWAN | carl.macgowan@newsday.com

7:57 PM EDT, June 18, 2007

Evan Marshall at the courthouse in Mineola on August 22, 2006. He is charged with killing and dismembering his neighbor Denice Fox. (Photo by Howard Schnapp)

Arriving in disguise and leaving through a back door, the mother of accused killer Evan Marshall Monday spoke publicly for the first time in Nassau County Court.

And it was the first time Jacqueline Marshall admitted that she knew something was amiss the night her neighbor was killed.

Marshall's appearance was brief -- no more than 15 minutes -- and mostly uneventful as she testified at a pretrial hearing to determine whether police had sufficient cause to arrest Evan Marshall, 32, last year. But she caused a stir when she arrived and again when she left the witness stand.

Marshall, of Glen Cove, walked into court wearing dark sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat and a blond wig, which she removed before she took the stand. She smiled slightly as she said she could identify her son, who was seated with his attorneys, and she showed no emotion as she testified.

With the permission of Judge Richard LaPera, Marshall and an unidentified friend left via a back door in an unsuccessful attempt to elude reporters and news photographers. They did not stop to speak to reporters and were whisked away in a court officer's vehicle.

Evan Marshall was arrested Aug. 18 on charges that he murdered Denice Fox, 57, of Glen Cove, the day before. Fox, a retired New York City special education teacher, lived in the same townhouse neighborhood as Marshall's mother. Parts of Fox's body were found in the basement of Jacqueline Marshall's home and in Evan Marshall's car, police have said.

Testifying for the prosecution under a grant of immunity, Marshall said her son kept drums, writings and other belongings in her basement. But, she said, he had not lived there since 2004.

"He doesn't live in the house," she said.

Evan Marshall's attorney, William Keahon of Islandia, is trying to show that police should not have searched Jacqueline Marshall's home because her son did not live there at the time of the murder. Officials of an upstate substance abuse rehabilitation center testified last week that Marshall lived there on Aug. 17, but was on leave that day.

Questioned by prosecutor Mitch Benson, Jacqueline Marshall acknowledged her voice mail allowed callers to leave messages for her son.

Asked by Benson who owned pornography found in her basement, she said, "Was it mine? No."

On Aug. 17, she said, police were investigating a crime when she came home. A neighbor said, "There's somebody missing," Marshall testified.

She said she checked her basement to see if her home was broken into and found several trash cans that did not belong to her. She lifted the lid off one can, reached inside and felt something wet but couldn't see anything, she said.

She said she called a lawyer, who told police not to interview her.

Late the night before, she said, Evan Marshall called her and said he might come home.

"I said, 'Well, I'm not going to be awake. I'm going to be asleep,'" Jacqueline Marshall said. "He said, 'That's OK, just leave the door open.'"