Snapped Killer Couples S18E01 - Maya Maxwell and Cedric Marks
Snapped Killer Couples S18E01
Snapped Killer Couples S18E01
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00It's like they fell off the face of the earth.
00:07They just disappeared.
00:10When they told us they were found in a shallow grave in Oklahoma, we were devastated.
00:14It was a very difficult moment in time.
00:17There are evil people out here in this world.
00:21He was able to manipulate the girls that he was in relationships with.
00:27I was terrified, I just, I hate, I hate saying this, it's so hard for me because I was just
00:39trying to survive.
00:40I couldn't come forward sooner.
00:43I wasn't safe.
00:44I'm going to be honest, I'm still not safe.
00:50There's no remorse.
00:51I'm just angry that she's caught.
00:53I'm so sorry, this does not get easier, I promise.
00:59Time does not make this easier.
01:14On Friday, January 4th, 2019, the Temple Police Department is alerted to the home of 32-year-old
01:21Michael Swearengin in Bell County, Texas.
01:25That morning, the Temple Police Department received an alarm call at Michael's house.
01:31So patrol is dispatched out there.
01:34Crime was an abnormality in Michael's neighborhood.
01:39They hear the dog inside and sometimes those alarms will be set off by a dog barking.
01:45So the alarm company will try to call what is called the key holder, right?
01:50So they're trying to call Michael and he's not answering his phone.
01:53When the alarm company fails to reach Michael, they reach out to his emergency contact, his
01:59mother Debbie.
02:02So I went over there and Michael didn't answer the phone, Michael didn't answer the door.
02:08His car was missing too and I was in a nervous wreck.
02:12Where's my boy?
02:14Michael doesn't do this.
02:16I looked through windows, walked around the house.
02:20Debbie recalls that Michael told her he was with his friend, 28-year-old Jenna Scott,
02:25the day before.
02:27So she tries contacting Jenna, hoping she may know where Michael is.
02:33When Jenna doesn't answer, Debbie calls Jenna's mother, Karen.
02:38The last time her mom saw her, she was dropping her off to see Michael.
02:43Her response is, well, Jenna's with Michael.
02:47And this starts setting off alarm bells with them.
02:52And so they were reporting to law enforcement, hey, we have our concerns.
02:58So two reports are taken, one for Michael and one for Jenna.
03:04We were doing all this searching, the anxiety kept climbing.
03:10It's like they fell off the face of the earth.
03:11They just disappeared.
03:14So we really had to work backwards at that point to try and figure out who we were looking
03:19for.
03:25Born and raised in Temple, Texas, Michael Swearengin always put faith and family first.
03:32Michael was the perfect son.
03:34He just had a sweet essence about him.
03:37He went to church, and he made a profession of faith, and he was baptized.
03:46Michael really did have everything going for him.
03:50He was sweet and kind, cared about everybody.
03:53He had a girlfriend.
03:55He had his own home.
03:57He worked for Spectrum, which does fiber optics, cable, Internet, and he was doing really well
04:06at that.
04:08He had lots of good friends.
04:14One of his closest friends was Jenna Scott.
04:17Like Michael, Jenna came from a tight-knit family.
04:21Jenna was always active, busy.
04:24She even as a baby, she was full of energy.
04:27We moved to Texas when she was about, she'd just gotten her driver's license, so she was
04:3416.
04:35She had her daughter Emery when she was 18, and we were 100% supportive of her.
04:42Jenna was dating my son, but with all of that pressure on them to be parents at such a young
04:49age, both of them ended up going their separate ways.
04:53We tried to always make sure that whatever we'd done as families, it was in Emery's
04:59best interest.
05:01Jenna was a very good mother to Emery.
05:04I just loved her and dotted on her and did the best she could for a young mom.
05:13In 2012, 22-year-old Jenna earned a nursing degree and then later enrolled in a master's
05:19program for counseling.
05:21She's always had compassion for people, and she wanted to make a difference in people's
05:25lives.
05:26Michael had met her when she was in nursing school through a friend of hers.
05:32Jenna was smart, but she was tender-hearted.
05:35I think that's why Michael and Jenna got along so well, because they were both so tender-hearted.
05:40He was like a very big protector of Jenna, and they were close friends.
05:48And I mentioned several times to Jenna, why don't you date Michael Swearingen?
05:52And she would say, no, he's my best friend.
05:56Jenna and Michael, they were like two peas in a pod, you know.
06:00They were like brother and sister.
06:06But on January 4th, 2019, Jenna and Michael have been missing for 24 hours, and law enforcement
06:14is growing increasingly concerned that something sinister has occurred.
06:19There was no note.
06:20There was no messaging about, hey, we're doing this.
06:21So it was also out of character, and so that caused the family to be very concerned.
06:27That night, Temple Police receive an update on Michael's car.
06:32I get a call that night, later in the night, saying, hey, they found the car in Austin.
06:37Austin Police Department has recovered it for us.
06:41What caught our attention was the fact that Michael absolutely would never go to Austin,
06:47because that just wasn't his scene.
06:50We realized this is absolutely not a place they would be.
06:54I don't even know that they would know this area in Austin.
06:59When we located the car, we were on our toes at this point.
07:02We needed to figure out what was going on.
07:06When authorities search the abandoned car, they make an alarming discovery.
07:12It's obvious that it's been wiped down.
07:14You can smell the bleach and the hydrogen peroxide.
07:20At this point, we knew they were in harm or danger.
07:28Coming up, as the search for Jenna and Michael intensifies, detectives uncover a toxic relationship.
07:36She was panicked, trying to call 911.
07:40She said, my blood will be on your hands.
07:44And a tell-all interview will expose a deadly plot.
07:49This was a man that, again, I trusted implicitly.
07:54This man, I felt, was the safest.
07:56My brain just, I couldn't believe what was happening.
08:00I couldn't.
08:11Authorities in Temple, Texas, are searching for Jenna Scott and Michael Swearengin after
08:17they were reported missing on January 4th.
08:21Three days later, detectives meet with both Jenna and Michael's families to get more details
08:27on their last known whereabouts.
08:30That Monday, we actually went to the house and started to interview the family and friends
08:35who were concerned.
08:36So January 3rd, there's some text messaging from Jenna.
08:41There's a message sent back to Karen and says, hey, I'm going to stay with Michael.
08:49Jenna's mom says, well, I thought we were going to do this.
08:53No, I'm going to stay with him.
08:56Jenna's daughter's birthday was coming, and they were planning for that.
09:00Well, why would she just up and leave?
09:04Family members reveal their theory that Jenna and Michael were targeted by Jenna's ex-boyfriend,
09:10Cedric Marks.
09:15Detectives learn that Jenna met 40-year-old Cedric in 2015.
09:21Jenna and him met on Tinder, and they had this on-and-off relationship for about three
09:27years.
09:28Cedric had this charming appearance because he was an MMA fighter.
09:34He won a lot of matches.
09:35He taught self-defense classes for women.
09:38He seemed like the perfect man up front.
09:42He was a single dad, which I had respect for him for that.
09:46He would actually bring his kids over, we had meals together, things like that.
09:50So we were very accepting of Cedric and his children.
09:55Family members allege that after three years of dating, the relationship turned violent.
10:02He had choked her out.
10:04He had assaulted her.
10:07She was shaken up quite bad.
10:09And the way that I viewed the situation at that time was, I need to protect Jenna.
10:16In 2018, we filed for the protective order, and we thought that that was the best choice
10:24to keep him from destroying Jenna's life any further.
10:29So we went through that process, and they had the hearing, the protective order hearing,
10:36where Cedric basically portrayed Jenna as being this crazy woman.
10:43And then Jenna got to, you know, plead her case too, and that's where the judge actually
10:48said, no, you're not getting a protective order.
10:52Jenna told the judge after he denied it, my blood will be on your hands.
11:01Detectives learned that in August 2018, Cedric was charged with breaking into Jenna's home.
11:08Jenna and Emery, her daughter, they were inside, and Jenna was panicked, trying to call 911.
11:16She reports that Cedric has broke into her house.
11:20The district attorney finds out and asks for a criminal investigation.
11:28This detective actually called him and told him, you can turn yourself in, and that night
11:33is when he fled to Michigan, and then that's when the federal warrant was ultimately issued
11:38for him.
11:40Now five months later, Jenna and Michael are missing, and their families fear that Cedric
11:46may have returned to Texas looking for revenge.
11:51Jenna feared for her life, and Cedric Marks was the reason, so it was kind of a question
11:56of where is Cedric?
12:01Back at the station, detectives reach out to the U.S. Marshals Service to help track
12:06down Cedric.
12:09We utilize the Marshals Service a lot.
12:12Cedric had a felony warrant, and so that would fall under their preview to help us.
12:22The next day, we got the phone call, Cedric Marks is in custody in Michigan.
12:30The Marshals Task Force is tracking his phone, and they go to a mall in Grand Rapids, and
12:39that is where Cedric is taken into custody.
12:42So Ashley and I fly up there.
12:48While Cedric is held on the federal warrant, detectives go to his registered address in
12:53Muskegon, Michigan, a home owned by his wife, Janelle McDonough.
12:59Cedric was arrested in Michigan, and the next day, the detectives from Texas as well as
13:10from Michigan were at the house.
13:15It was very surreal.
13:18We realized that he's living with his wife, Janelle, their two children, and then his
13:24girlfriend, Maya Maxwell, who's pregnant with Cedric's child, all living together in a very
13:30weird setup.
13:33Detectives seize the opportunity to learn more about their primary suspect.
13:37We gave them the option to come talk with us, right, because they're ultimately not
13:41who we're trying to investigate, but they're here, so what would you know, right?
13:46I went with them, and I remember I was trying to protect myself, trying to protect the boys.
13:54I was trying to protect Cedric at the time because I didn't understand the whole story.
14:03I didn't understand what they understood of him at that point in time.
14:09So Cory's interviewing Janelle, and I'm interviewing Maya, and she brings up how Jenna and Michael
14:16are missing.
14:17We didn't know how much she was involved at that time, but you know something.
14:24Maya is quick to confirm detectives' worst fears.
14:28Michael and Jenna had been killed by Cedric.
14:33Maya was actually there and saw what happened.
14:38My name is Maya Maxwell, and I am Cedric Marx's ex-girlfriend.
14:49I did tell them everything I could, when I could.
14:53I tried my best to be as, you know, detailed as possible.
14:59I've never stopped helping.
15:03I was terrified.
15:05I just, I hate, I hate saying this.
15:09It's so hard for me because I was just trying to survive.
15:16I know that's horrible because Jenna and Michael didn't.
15:19I'm so sorry.
15:20Temple, Texas authorities have just learned that Cedric Marx is responsible for the disappearance
15:38and murders of his ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, and her friend, Michael Swearengin.
15:45His girlfriend, Maya Maxwell, admits, yes, she was there with Cedric.
15:49There's so many people depending on us to get this information out of her.
15:52So I build a rapport as a female, and I'm going, okay, so how did you meet Cedric?
15:56How did you guys come in contact?
15:59It was 2016.
16:03I was 24 years old when I moved to Texas.
16:09I got plenty of fish, and then that's where I met Cedric.
16:18He was goofy like me, kind of quirky and funny, and seemed carefree, seemed like the
16:26perfect guy.
16:27And I knew he was a fighter, but he assured me, too, that that, he keeps that in the ring.
16:32He was, he was, felt like a safe person.
16:39Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cedric Marx found his passion for martial arts following
16:45a six-year stint in prison for aggravated burglary when he was 17.
16:51It became a huge thing for him to start down the path of MMA.
16:55And he wanted to do MMA because it made him just feel stronger, you know?
17:02In 2002, he met Janelle McDonough in Washington before the couple moved to Texas.
17:09I first met Cedric when we both were in the Navy together.
17:14We met in basic training, and he was just a very nice guy at that time.
17:22And we became friends.
17:25We got married in October 2003.
17:28It wasn't the typical marriage that everybody else has.
17:34Because of the fact that I'm gay, we just kind of had an open relationship.
17:39And she wanted a baby, so Cedric gave her a baby.
17:44In return, Janelle was comfortable with Cedric dating other women over the years, including
17:49Maya Maxwell.
17:52Her understanding of our relationship was that even though we were married, we were
17:58just best friends.
18:01He asked me to move in with him, and I said yes.
18:04His boys were on board, that everything seemed great.
18:07It was just a few days before I was supposed to move in that he tells me that he's going
18:14to have to move to Michigan.
18:17So he was going to need me to move to Michigan as well.
18:22So I was like, okay.
18:28Maya says Cedric traveled often for work.
18:32I thought that we were exclusive, just us, but there was a point where I started to feel
18:39like he was cheating on me.
18:41He didn't really stay in touch.
18:44There was no video calls.
18:46I had uprooted my life, and I just found out I was pregnant with my son.
18:59Maya confronted Cedric, who opened up about his previous relationship with Jenna Scott.
19:06We got in an argument over that, but he again pacified me.
19:10And then he tells me that he has a warrant in Texas, and that one of his exes, who happens
19:19to be Jenna, was accusing him of showing up at her house, but he wasn't ever there, and
19:30She's crazy and ruining his life.
19:34She just won't leave him alone, and that's why he had to hurry up and move to Michigan
19:39when he did.
19:42Maya admits she traveled back to Texas for the order of protection hearing in 2018.
19:48Well, at that hearing, the judge did not grant her a protective order.
19:55So when Jenna walked past me, I remember her saying that I was gross, and I said, you too.
20:06She didn't understand why Jenna couldn't just leave Cedric alone.
20:09Maya says she was shocked to learn from Cedric that he broke into Jenna's house one month
20:14later.
20:16So January 2nd, the plan was, what I thought, was to get him down to Texas, turn him in
20:25again, go right back.
20:27But that wasn't what his plan was.
20:34On the evening of January 3rd, Maya claims that Cedric directed her to a residential
20:40address in Temple.
20:43She was able to describe the house.
20:44I'm pulling up the GPS of Michael's house, and I'm like, is this what you're talking
20:49about?
20:50And she goes, yep.
20:51He told me he wanted to go hang out with his friend, and he tells me to just go to Walmart,
20:57get something to eat, and he tells me, oh, by the way, while you're there, also pick
21:04up big black trash bags.
21:09Maya admits she went to Walmart and purchased trash bags before driving to a friend's house.
21:16One of his friends was out of town for the weeks, so we were staying at her place.
21:21Eventually, I hear the garage door, and he walked in with Jenna.
21:32She was handcuffed.
21:33And he put her in one bathroom, and then he went back out to the garage, and he brought
21:45in Michael, handcuffed.
21:49I'd never met Michael.
21:51I'd never heard of him, and he put Michael in the other bathroom.
21:56Maya tells detectives that's when Cedric began to strangle Michael.
22:02I begged him to stop.
22:06I couldn't get up.
22:09And he just turned and looked at me.
22:13He told me to look the f away.
22:23It lasted a few minutes.
22:29And then when he was done, he left him slumped over in the bathtub.
22:38I couldn't move.
22:40My brain just, I couldn't believe what was happening.
22:44I couldn't.
22:45He went in to where Jenna was, picked her up, and he brought her in to see Michael and
22:53told her this was her fault.
22:58And she and I just looked at each other and didn't say anything.
23:03And he carried her out and brought her back into another bathroom and just asked, are
23:09you ready?
23:11And the same sounds came out of that bathroom, too.
23:17I couldn't come forward soon.
23:19I wasn't safe.
23:29Following the confession of Maya Maxwell, authorities press her for more information
23:39on where the remains of 28-year-old Jenna Scott and 32-year-old Michael Swearengin are
23:45located.
23:47She describes Cedric cleaning up everything, and she describes him taking this car to
23:54Austin, how they go into Walmart to go buy a shovel with the bodies in the car, until
24:02they find the perfect place that Cedric can put them.
24:08Jenna was in garbage bags behind me, and then Michael was in garbage bags all the way in
24:19the back.
24:21And then they drive to Oklahoma.
24:23Maya says, you know, they get there, it's late at night, and Cedric starts digging up
24:30a spot that's close to his family reunion gatherings.
24:34She's helping him with it.
24:41He had told me if I tried to get away, he knew the area better than I did.
24:47He's faster.
24:49He's a trained fighter.
24:51I've never been in a fight in my life.
24:53I was pregnant.
24:56I was terrified.
24:59He's walking me through how, you know, this isn't how he wants relationships to end, but
25:07he just got rid of two terrible people that hurt people.
25:15And I know I didn't like Jenna before, but all of that went out the door when he ended
25:20up murdering Jenna and Michael.
25:24What this murder of Jenna and Michael were is Jenna was going to send him to prison for
25:30a long time, and Cedric had no control over her.
25:34He was going to go to prison for a long time, and so how do you make that not happen?
25:40You take it out.
25:41You kill it.
25:47With Maya's help, detectives determined the location where Jenna and Michael's bodies
25:53were buried.
25:56We get to Oklahoma.
25:57It's cows.
25:58It's just pasture.
25:59We walk onto the property, and we see exactly what she's talking about.
26:02You can see the tracks of the tires, and then what we do is we actually have the anthropologist
26:08because it's a recovery, and then they say, yep, they're here and here based on the dirt
26:12and the settlement and the different discoloration.
26:19It takes a part of your soul that you don't get back.
26:21Seeing Michael and Jenna that day in Oklahoma, when we finally got to get to them, a part
26:26of me died that day.
26:28They called us, and they found the bodies, and all we're doing is crying.
26:36We don't know what to do.
26:38When they told us that they had found Jenna and Michael in a shallow grave in Oklahoma,
26:43we were devastated.
26:44It was a very, very difficult moment in time, for sure.
26:52The medical examiner determines that Michael Swearengin died by strangulation, which matches
26:58Maya's account of the murder.
27:00But Cedric had been far more violent with Jenna.
27:05He strangled her.
27:06We had duct tape on the back of her neck.
27:09But he beat her, and he did all the damage to the organs by beating her.
27:19That's where the medical comes in saying, listen, any of these things could have been
27:24what killed her.
27:28With Maya's story told and the victims' bodies found, police determined that she should be
27:33charged with two felony counts of tampering with evidence.
27:38She says that herself.
27:40Had I just called 911 when I saw Jenna, none of this would have happened.
27:44I can tell you confidently, she was not remorseful.
27:48She was just upset that this all happened.
27:51There's no remorse.
27:53She's angry that she's caught.
27:56Authorities switch focus to Cedric Marks, who is being held on a federal warrant in
28:01a Michigan jail.
28:04Cedric is not charged with the murders of Jenna and Michael yet, because we wanted him
28:11to not waive extradition, and we wanted him to come to Texas.
28:15So he thought he was coming to Texas on his burglar of habitation warrant only.
28:21On February 2nd, nearly a month after Jenna and Michael's disappearances, Cedric is transported
28:28to Texas.
28:30Less than 150 miles outside of Temple, chaos ensues.
28:37I get a phone call that says Cedric escaped.
28:41I go, what do you mean he escaped?
28:45Detectives learn that Cedric escaped through a window of the transport van while parked
28:50at a fast food restaurant.
28:53He was able to kick out, and then that's how he escaped.
28:57Cedric's M.O. was to go get rid of anyone who'd keep him in prison.
29:01Well, he already got rid of Jenna and Michael, so the only other option would be to get rid
29:05of the family or the investigators who knew what he was capable of.
29:09So that's very fearful, all the victims.
29:12What, you know, families, what do we need to do to protect them?
29:16It was just all about what can we do to get information to the people that are looking
29:20for him to recapture him.
29:35A manhunt is underway for former MMA fighter Cedric Marks, the suspected killer of Jenna
29:42Scott and Michael Swearengin.
29:46So we get through the initial shock of him escaping.
29:48We're telling the marshals go find him.
29:50We have the prison guards out.
29:51Everybody's looking for him.
29:54A K-9 team is brought in to assist law enforcement.
29:58He takes his dog to the exact spot that Cedric drops from the van because he's barefoot.
30:03That dog takes off running.
30:06So the dog's going, going, going, and then they end up going to this house, and the dog
30:10starts hitting on this trash bin.
30:13And they kick it over, and out pops Cedric.
30:16And, like, he'd been crouched in a, like, position for eight hours in that trash bin.
30:23He was going to wait the perimeter out and everything.
30:29Authorities transport Cedric to the Temple Police Station for an interview.
30:34He was in solitary confinement.
30:36So we go in, and we're like, we want to talk to you about, you know, Jenna and Michael.
30:43And he comes up with, oh my gosh, I had nothing to do with that.
30:49I think it's the shortest interview we have with him.
30:51He's like, you know, you ruined my life.
30:53He was just so mad.
30:55Cedric was charged with double capital murder.
30:58He is locked up.
30:59He is facing the death penalty.
31:02Behind bars, Cedric continues to maintain his innocence.
31:07I can only imagine what's going on with their family, and I am so sorry for their losses.
31:13But I did not and had nothing to do with this.
31:16Despite what the media put out, I was not trying to escape.
31:20I was actually in fear, and I was not going anywhere at all.
31:31More than 1,000 miles away, the news of Cedric Mark's arrest catches the attention of authorities in Bloomington, Minnesota,
31:39due to his connection to a missing persons case 10 years prior.
31:46In October of 2008, April Pease filed for a protective order against Cedric before she disappeared.
31:55Minnesota detectives contact Temple Police and inform them that Cedric has been their number one suspect in April's disappearance.
32:09She ended up meeting Cedric off of one of those dating apps.
32:19I'm not sure which one.
32:21I think it was Tinder.
32:24For the first, I would say, year, it was good between them.
32:30I think she did fall in love with him for a while.
32:37April became pregnant, and in 2005, she and Cedric welcomed their son.
32:44At that time, he was having a baby with Janelle, and then he had a baby with April, very close together.
32:52They're about four months apart, and, you know, she stayed with us for a little while.
33:00She told me they got into an argument because she was going out, and he choked her out.
33:09She called the cops, but nothing ever happened.
33:13She ended it, and I was trying to move on then.
33:18April and her son had sought protection at a woman's shelter, where she was last seen in March of 2009.
33:28One of the ladies from the shelter called me and said that April, she'd been gone all night,
33:34and that if she didn't come back, they were going to have to turn my grandson over to CPS.
33:41So I tried calling April, and she wouldn't answer the phone.
33:47She ultimately went missing, and the court thought that she had abandoned her child and just left him,
33:56and so, regardless of her family protest, the son was given to the father, Cedric.
34:04So, due to circumstances, I raised April's son.
34:14Fast forward ten years, and Jenna and him are in a volatile relationship.
34:18It's the same routine, so that kind of started our thinking, is this a serial killer case?
34:3544-year-old Cedric Marks stands accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott,
34:41and her best friend, Michael Swearingen, with the help of his current girlfriend, Maya Maxwell.
34:48There was retaliation. Cedric Marks was upset that Jenna had filed criminal charges against him.
34:56Cedric was jealous of Michael.
35:00I think he thought something was going on between Michael and Jenna.
35:05Cedric has also been a suspect in the disappearance of April Pease ten years earlier,
35:11raising fears authorities might be dealing with a serial killer.
35:16It's the protective orders, and the physical abuse, and the strangling, and all these things.
35:21This is a pattern of behavior for someone.
35:24On January 30th, 2019, investigators in Texas and Minnesota
35:30team up to interview several witnesses in the April Pease case,
35:35including another girlfriend he had at the time, Kelly Sorensen.
35:41So we go, and Kelly interviews with both the Minnesota police and us,
35:48The Minnesota police and us, and she was able to recall a situation with April and Cedric.
35:55She said he has killed April Pease.
35:58Then we find out that Kelly had actually been present with Cedric.
36:05April Pease first went missing in 2009, and there was this custody battle with Cedric at the time.
36:14Kelly tells us Cedric knew, I'm going to go to jail, and I want my son.
36:20And so he found April.
36:22She's actually located out of a woman's shelter for women and children
36:26that was to protect them from violent offenses.
36:30He finds her, he watches her, and as she's going back into it,
36:35they take her and drag her to a car, and he decides to kill her.
36:40With Kelly's help, investigators attempt to track down April's body, but are unsuccessful.
36:48After the first year, I knew that she wasn't alive anymore.
36:55But I still hoped to be able to find her remains.
37:01I talked with the detective, and her hope and their intent is to still bring Cedric back.
37:09To bring my daughter home to me.
37:17Ten years after April's disappearance, investigators uncover evidence that may prove Cedric's guilt.
37:26I actually ended up being arrested for harboring a fugitive,
37:31but it was all dropped, and I continued to help them and try to locate April,
37:38and try to help them get closure for everybody.
37:45Janelle communicated with us.
37:48There were things that were not in our search warrant that she consented to allowing us to take.
37:56There was a box that Janelle had of Cedric's items that he would just keep and collect.
38:02Well, there is a tape.
38:04This is before the disappearance of April, and he just talks about how much he loves his boys,
38:11and that he wanted to get them together, and he just wanted his son back,
38:15and he was going to do whatever he had to do, and he made up his mind.
38:20To us who are investigating him and know Cedric to an extent, that's the equivalent of a confession.
38:29He gets charged while he's in jail at Bell County for April Pease's murder.
38:39Two years later, Minnesota prosecutors aren't prepared to move forward in April Pease's case,
38:45but Texas prosecutors are if they can flip Cedric's accomplice, Maya Maxwell.
38:53They needed Maya's testimony. It was really crucial in this whole case.
38:58Prosecutors agree to a lesser sentence in exchange for Maya's testimony.
39:04Maya takes the deal, pleading guilty to two counts of tampering with a corpse.
39:10She got 20 years in prison with a chance of parole.
39:14I did tell them everything, and unfortunately in Texas that meant that I had to be part of it,
39:22and for them to get justice, then that's fine.
39:29On Monday, April 17th, 2023, Cedric Mark's murder trial for Jenna Scott and Michael Swearingen begins.
39:38Cedric believes he's the smartest man in the room. He believes he knows the law better than any lawyer.
39:45He decided to defend himself.
39:48Prosecutors fight back with a mountain of circumstantial evidence.
39:54We saw phone extractions and timelines of exactly where he was at a certain time and date,
40:02and it lined up completely with the murders.
40:04We went to Henrietta, Oklahoma, where we know that shovels were purchased,
40:09and got the video there, and you see Cedric and Maya in footage.
40:13Two weeks into the trial, Maya takes the stand as the state's star witness.
40:20When Maya walked into the courtroom, there was almost a shift.
40:25She would not make eye contact with Cedric.
40:28I think Maya really, really regretted everything.
40:32She felt terrible, was breaking down into tears, and kept apologizing.
40:39They did not deserve that sick man dead.
40:42There are evil people out here in this world, and he's one of them.
40:48He was able to manipulate the girls that he was in relationships with.
40:53Following a six-week trial, the jury hands down its verdict.
40:58Cedric Marks was found guilty of double capital murder for Michael and Jenna.
41:05He was sentenced to death.
41:08There's some comfort in knowing that he is going to suffer for his actions,
41:14but there's no justice for murdering a young woman and man like that.
41:22So Michael and Jenna's case is closed with this conviction.
41:26April's is charged and still open, but there's no statute of limitations for murder,
41:34and sometimes we just have to be patient.
41:37Cedric Marks took two amazing people away from their families.
41:45No mother, no family would ever have to go through what we did.
41:51We'd had to go through this and go through the trial.
41:56It's all, it's just terrible.
42:02It'll never, it'll never go away.
42:21For more information visit www.FEMA.gov