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By Beacon Journal staff
POSTED: 02:32 p.m. EST, Nov 05, 2009
Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.
Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.
Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron is charged with aggravated murder.
Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.
Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.
Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.
Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.
Within four hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.
All three remain jailed pending their arraignment in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a former Copley Township woman accused of plotting with friends to have her mother killed.
Taylor Marks, 20, and her friend, Troy Purdie II, 19, have been indicted for aggravated murder by a Summit County grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Marks and Purdie under the state's murder-for-hire statute.
Marks' boyfriend, Brian S. Smith, 22, of Akron is charged with aggravated murder.
Police said Marks offered Purdie $5,000 to kill her mother, businesswoman Kristie Marks, 58, who operated a Visiting Angels home health-care business.
Police said the plot was designed so that Taylor Marks could inherit her mother's wealth.
Police said Taylor Marks lured her mother on Oct. 24 to a Springdale Street apartment complex where Purdie stabbed her as she stood near a parking lot.
Taylor Marks and Smith then called 911 to report the slaying as Purdie ran off, police said.
Within four hours, based on inconsistencies in their stories, police obtained confessions in the alleged plot. Purdie's bloody clothes and a knife were recovered near the scene, police said.
All three remain jailed pending their arraignment in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
Comments
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oıɥo 'uoɹʞɐ, ㏊㏊
Posted 02:37 PM, 11/05/2009
That's what she gets for who she befriended.
Akron, OH
Posted 02:43 PM, 11/05/2009
How sad.
akron, oh
Posted 02:44 PM, 11/05/2009
OMG...her own mother...God help her.
Akron, OH
Posted 02:46 PM, 11/05/2009
Her are her friends are all just a waste. Fry 'em all!
Kookville, Oh
Posted 02:47 PM, 11/05/2009
Stupid, stupid stupid. And they really thought they would get a way with it??? Were they on crack??? Stupid people.
...but a good looking bunch none the less.
akron, OH
Posted 02:51 PM, 11/05/2009
To set a plot to kill your own flesh and blood is so sad. It's the "bond" that a real family member would never break. "Family" especially against "mom"
I'm sorry for them all. This should not have happened.
uniontown, oh
Posted 02:54 PM, 11/05/2009
I see an opportunity here for us to start our very own reality show. Lets call it " killer kids, neighbors and friends of Akron, Ohio". I'm sure some cable network would pick us up. We could balance our city budget within a few episodes. Call me, we'll have lunch.
akron, oh
Posted 02:55 PM, 11/05/2009
My prayers are with this family. All three should receive the same sentence!!!
Akron, OH
Posted 03:42 PM, 11/05/2009
I can't believe this loser killed her own mother over money! And the two men, what winners! Hey Brian, don't spend that $5,000 in one place...oh wait, your already in one place til you die...JAIL!!! Good riddens!!!!
Let's hope the journey to the injection table is quick and swift, but their suffering and misery is long and hard!
Canton, OH
Posted 03:54 PM, 11/05/2009
citizenk62 - i like it!
can we invite the mayor and warner mendenhall to have cameos?
akron, oh
Posted 04:37 PM, 11/05/2009
Keep her thin so we can find a vein when the time comes.
WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 05:14 PM, 11/05/2009
Put her in a cell with the serial killer in Cleveland...
Thats what she deserves.
akron, oh
Posted 06:09 PM, 11/05/2009
So many ways to punish this POS. She should "accidently" die in jail, and avoid the court delays.
Posted 06:26 PM, 11/05/2009
hang 'em high, let the buzzards pick at their bones
Akron, OH
Posted 07:11 PM, 11/05/2009
I feel terrible for Mrs. Marks. what is the world coming to? Who would think that after losing her father this child would turn around and plot to kill her mother. She had a loving mother who would have given her anything from all that what has been said. On the ohter hand who in their right mind would even agree to kill someone's mom, especially for $5000.
I don't care whose idea it was or who actually stabbed Mrs. Marks, all three are equally as guilty.
Posted 07:19 PM, 11/05/2009
I think somebody doctored up the photo's, taping the heads on someone else's bodies. She looks like she got taped to a male body builder. The brother got taped to a women wearing a dress, and the white guy got put back on his own body, but they glued in on crooked. Take a look, I am right.
Man how sad this story is though.
Akron, Oh
Posted 07:49 PM, 11/05/2009
I still cannot comprehend this. This girl could've had ANYTHING she wanted, and she chose to shack up in a government ghetto with a bunch of losers as company.
akron, oh
Posted 08:09 PM, 11/05/2009
Hey citizenk62, throw in a "Balloon Boy" blowing by and we have a series.
akron, oh
Posted 08:14 PM, 11/05/2009
I agree w/ BillyBob
CuyahogaFalls, oh
Posted 07:32 AM, 11/06/2009
Better yet, put all of them in the same cell as clevelands serial killer.
Akron, Oh
Posted 08:33 AM, 11/06/2009
These people aren't rocket scientists, that's for sure. I hope Ohio figures out this death penalty debackel(sp) before long so these people can be killed quickly & efficiently
akron, oh
Posted 12:29 PM, 11/06/2009
@scotth, I see it! You're right. They do look like paste ons. Boy, that girl looks like she got kissed with a bag of nickles.
She offered these guys $5K and probably a little sump'm, sump'm to whack her mom. "She's really a good girl, just misunderstood!"
@MarryAnn: "My prayers are with this family ..."
I think she was an only child. With mom gone she has no family to speak of.
Akron, OH
Posted 01:22 PM, 11/06/2009
Where is that person who was posting on the original article whining about how "sick" Taylor is? I guess he/she decided to sit this one out.
Sick or not, she had the wherewithal to plan her Mom's murder-doesn't sound too sick to me! Maybe we can test out some new methods of execution on her & her pals.
Green, Ohio
Posted 02:05 PM, 11/06/2009
Someone does have to be sick in the head to plot to have there own mother killed. However, you do the crime, you do the time. And in this case it must be the DEATH PENALTY!
akron, oh
Posted 03:20 PM, 11/08/2009
I used to hang out with brian and once in a while i hung out with troy. But i only hung out with Brian and his now ex at the time it was some time last year and im not usually a judge for character but i could tell that they both were messed up (troy and brian). and taylor was actually adopted as an only child than she gets money hungry and by the mug shots im guessing all of them were in it for crack money but she could have had anything that she wanted her mother would get it for her than she just gets money hungry and does this... thats stupid
