Suspect confesses murder at church service

Keith Paul

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

Frank Marques was seeking redemption.

A couple of times Thursday morning he pulled on a church's door only to find it locked.

Then, with the help of a crumpled page ripped out of the yellow pages listing Catholic churches, he showed up for Mass at the Rev. Bill Kenny's church.

Kenny saw Marques sitting in one of the chairs waiting for the 8 a.m. Mass to start. The priest's eyes caught the eyes of the man he had never seen before in his church.

"I could tell he was distressed by the way he looked. He was in need," Kenny said. "I thought he would come up to me after the Mass."

Kenny was about five minutes into the Mass at the Christ the King Catholic Church at Torrey Pines Drive and Tropicana Avenue when Marques stood up and walked over to the seated priest near the pulpit.

What happened next seemed more like a plot line from a TV cop show than a morning Mass in Las Vegas.

"He knelt in front of me and said 'Father, I need your blessing,' " said Kenny, a 58-year-old priest who has been at the church for 24 years. "I put my hand on his head and blessed him. He then said, 'Father, I murdered my wife.' "

The stunned priest just looked at the man as he pulled up his shirt, showing a gun he said was used in the crime.

"I put my hand on his head and gave him a blessing," Kenny said.

Kenny and some of the 50 others in the church didn't know that Metro Police had been searching for Marques, 43, since his estranged wife was found shot to death in her car at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in an alley on Builders Avenue near Charleston Avenue and Mojave Road.

The woman left work on a break Wednesday night, but told friends she was going to meet Marques.

When Marques confessed to the priest in front of the congregation, Kenny said he heard gasps from the parishioners.

"I told him I didn't want to see the gun," Kenny said. "He pulled it out and held it in his palm and said, 'I killed my wife. I want God to forgive me.' "

After Marques put the gun on the floor, Kenny signaled to one of the parishioners to pick up the gun, and sat Marques in one of the chairs.

"I continued with the Mass and kept my eye on him. He sat there crying and sobbing during the Mass," Kenny said.

Kenny said he continued with the Mass because he wanted to maintain the calm that was in the church. He decided finishing the Mass and then talking to the man would be the best thing to do.

While the Mass was going on, police were searching for Marques after getting a tip that he was in a cab going to a church.

As the Mass ended, Kenny took off his robes, sat and talked with Marques in the church. Kenny looked at the man seated in his church smelling of alcohol and said to him, "Now is what you told me is that you murdered your wife?"

"He said yes, and I told him that I was going to have to call 911," Kenny said. "He said that was OK. He said he would rather be arrested in a church than a bar."

Kenny said he asked the man when he did this because "it could have been yesterday or it could have been 12 years ago."

But Kenny recounted that Marques said, "I killed her (Wednesday). The police are looking for me. It's been all over the news."

Marques told Kenny he ripped a page out of the yellow pages and handed it to a cab driver, asking to be taken to the church after trying a couple of other Catholic churches.

As Kenny called police, a detective was pulling into the parking lot after getting a tip that Marques might be in the area, said Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro's homicide unit.

Kenny took Marques to his office to make the call to police. He then went outside, saw the detective and brought him back to the office.

Marques surrendered peacefully and was eventually booked into the Clark County jail on a count of murder.

Police asked Kenny to give a statement, which he did, but only after consulting with the Diocese of Las Vegas.

The Rev. Bob Stoeckig, the diocese vicar general, said Father Kenny was not violating any privileged material since Marques didn't ask for the sacrament of confession.

"You never celebrate the sacrament of confession within earshot of 40 people or with a loaded gun in your hand," Stoeckig said. "It is important to distinguish not everything said to a priest is privileged."

However, if Marques was in the confessional in the church, that information would be privileged, he said.

Monahan said that if Kenny had been unable to give a statement, the detective still had 20 or more people who heard Marques confess during the Mass.

Kenny said there was never any question of calling the police.

"He is forgiven in the eyes of God, but he must still face justice," Kenny said.