Suspect was 'just like all the other boys'

BY DENISE M. BONILLA | STAFF WRITER; Staff writers Alejandro Lazo and Susana Enriquez contributed to this story.

August 19, 2006

Evan Marshall seemed like just another teen when he was growing up on Plandome Road in Manhasset, those who knew him then said Friday.

Wearing button-down shirts, khakis and loafers, the polite young man loved to play ball and horse around with the other boys, neighbors said.

"He was always a very easy-going young man," said Barbara Guidi, whose son Steven has been friends with Marshall since they were in elementary school. "He was just a little boy, hanging out, just like all the other boys."

Steven Guidi was too stunned to comment Friday. His mother said she had last seen Marshall less than three weeks ago, at Steven's wedding.

"We spoke and he seemed perfectly fine," Barbara Guidi said.

There was no indication that Marshall would be the type of person accused of committing such a brutal crime. "It doesn't seem like him. I can't believe this. This is terrible," she said.

Marshall played baseball and football at Manhasset High School, neighbors said, before moving to Glen Cove with his mother, Jacqueline, in the early 1990s after his parents divorced and his father, Robert, moved west.

Former neighbor Elizabeth McSweeney, 47, said she used to baby-sit Marshall, and called him "a cute, cuddly little thing" who grew up to be respectful.

"He was not weird," said one former neighbor who asked not to be identified. "This is a pretty quiet neighborhood. We would have known if something weird happened here."

Marshall made a different impression on some people, however. Steve Lamere, the owner of Charlie's Deli in Glen Cove, said Marshall "flew off the handle" last summer when Lamere refused to give him several dollars' worth of change. "He had a bit of a temper," Lamere said.

When Marshall started shouting profanities, Lamere said, he escorted him out. Once outside, Lamere said, Marshall threw a Snapple bottle at him from across the street. "You can tell there's something wrong with him," he said.

Staff writers Alejandro Lazo and Susana Enriquez contributed to this story.