Cause of killer’s death: Eating foreign objects

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

Mark Stewart Emmens told a Clark County District Court jury during his murder sentencing hearing in May 1989 that he was "never fully rational about what was happening -- what was going on."

The jury gave Emmens -- also known as Emmons -- a death sentence for the 1985 stabbing slaying of Jack Perkins at Hoover Dam. Emmens previously was convicted of killing Larry Fuller in Elko, also in 1985, and was given life in prison.

In prison, Emmens developed a habit of eating objects that were not food -- a habit that like his motives for killing were not "fully rational," and a habit that the Clark County coroner's office said cost him his life on July 10.

Coroner Ron Flud said that "three full spoons" were found undigested in Emmens' stomach, leading the medical examiner to determine that the 38-year-old former drifter died of gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

"There were questions about his mental stability," Flud said. "He had a history of eating foreign objects like books."

Flud said that according to coroner records the spelling of Emmens' name was different than it has been previously reported. Throughout his trial, his name was printed in news stories as Mark Emmons. Flud said the name that will go on the death certificate will be Mark Emmens.

Emmens was found unconscious in his cell at Ely State Prison on July 6 and was taken to Ely hospital and later to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he died.