Man who shot landlady convicted of murder

Kim Smith

Monday, June 26, 2000 | 11:33 a.m.

The cavalier attitude of a Las Vegas man who called 911 last June to report he shot his landlady to death because she was driving him crazy may have contributed to his conviction this morning on a first-degree murder charge.

Jurors were called upon to decide if Joel Marks' actions were a crime of passion, as defense attorneys claimed, or if he acted deliberately or with malice, as prosecutors believe.

What jurors decided meant the difference between a voluntary manslaughter conviction, a second-degree murder conviction or a first-degree murder conviction.

The penalty phase of the trial began at about 10 this morning. Marks faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Marks, 59, called 911 on June 16, 1999, to report that he had shot and killed Mary Banister, 75, about five hours earlier. Prosecutors Christopher Lalli and Craig Hendricks played the tape twice for jurors during the two-day trial in an attempt to prove Marks' actions were cold-blooded.

On the tape, a matter-of-fact Marks tells the dispatcher that he wants to report a homicide. When asked if he knew what had happened to the victim, Marks replied, "Yes, I shot her."

Marks went on to tell the dispatcher that he shot Banister because she told him to leave, but refused to give him the rent money he had just paid her a few days earlier.

"I picked up the gun and said 'You better give me my money' and she said 'Go ahead and shoot me' and so I did," Marks said.

When the dispatcher told Marks she didn't think Banister's actions justified him shooting her and that he would probably end up in prison, Marks said that Banister had been "asking for it" and he didn't have long to live anyway.

In order to convict someone of first-degree murder, Lalli told the jurors, they needed to find that Marks acted willfully, deliberately and with premeditation. Premeditation need only be as long as two successive thoughts, Lalli stressed.

Marks showed he killed Banister with deliberation and premeditation by threatening her with the gun ahead of time, Lalli said. Moreover, after he shot her dead-center in the chest, he sat in front of the TV eating a sandwich and olives as her body lay on the floor just feet away.

Banister would never let him watch his TV programs or eat olives, Lalli said.

"He killed her so he could do those things, and that's deliberation," Lalli said.

If jurors don't believe Marks acted deliberately, Lalli said, he and Hendricks proved Marks acted with malice, so the jurors could convict him of second-degree murder.

Lalli reminded the jurors that Marks is still referring to Banister in derogatory terms one year after her death. He called her a "bitch" when speaking to a psychiatrist before the trial.

Deputy Public Defender Jordan Savage told jurors during his closing arguments that it would be "absurd" for him to argue that Marks' diabetes, gangrene and kidney failure caused him to kill Banister.

However, Savage said that when Banister tried to evict him, Marks -- because of his debilitating health condition, lack of a support system and housing options -- flew into a "very temporary rage."

As for prosecutors' argument that Marks should be convicted of first-degree murder, Savage said it should be the "quality of thought, not the quantity of thought" that should be considered before making that determination.