(Stillwater, Okla.) — An admitted killer from Stillwater who confessed to stabbing his best friend to death had a history of mental illness and was a heavy drug user, according to court documents.
Isaiah Zoar Marin, 22, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder as part of a plea bargain, did not explain in court Wednesday why he killed 19-year-old Jacob Crockett.
But Marin’s written guilty plea indicated he had been treated for mental illness since October 2012, two years before he repeatedly stabbed the victim, who often allowed him to stay in a Stillwater apartment the victim shared with his identical twin brother.
Marin’s court-appointed attorneys had maintained that he was not mentally competent, “with his first profound episode of psychosis around 18 or 19,” although a state psychologist had found that Marin was competent to face the murder charge.
Marin’s lead defense attorney Peter Astor had originally asked for a jury trial Wednesday on the issue of his mental competence, but instead told the judge in court Wednesday he believed Marin had achieved competence due to medications he was receiving in the Payne County Jail.
In sentencing Marin, District Judge Phillip Corley told him Wednesday, “You will serve your entire life in custody. Your actions affected so many people. You will remember every day what you did to him.”
On the recommendation of prosecutor Kevin Etherington, who withdrew his request for the death penalty as part of the plea bargain, the judge asked that the state Department of Corrections provide mental health treatment to Marin in prison.
District Attorney Laura Thomas said she “had long maintained that Marin was both competent and sane when he brutally murdered 19-year-old Jacob Crockett.”
“Isaiah Marin came from a highly dysfunctional family,” the DA said.
“The Crockett brothers allowed him to stay with them for several months, tolerating his problems and providing for him.
“There is also evidence that Marin was a heavy drug user, frequently using marijuana, synthetic marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and datura seeds,” a hallucinogenic, the DA said.
“Isaiah Marin planned this murder; he told Jesse (the victim’s twin brother) he was planning to kill someone.
“In statements to police, Marin said he was planning on killing more people that day and even originally planned to wait for Jesse to return and kill him.
“Marin’s first attack on Jacob was stabbing him several times in the chest which Jacob tried to fight off.
“As Marin’s brother fled the scene, he continued to butcher Jacob before running after his brother, Samuel, to comfort him.
“Marin then returned to the apartment where Jacob was still alive, and chopped at Jacob’s head, face and torso nearly decapitating him.
“Payne County jail staff has documented suicidal and homicidal expressions by Marin since his incarceration including a desire to kill one of the deputies.
“He is an extremely dangerous individual. This plea was designed to ensure he will never have the chance to be released to the public,” the DA said.
In the courtroom filled with supporters for the victim’s family, including nine Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers, the victim’s father, OHP Lt. Ben Crockett said “Jacob’s terrible death ripped all of our hearts out.
“Jacob was a sensitive, caring kid, so easy to love.
“On Oct. 29, I was in Oklahoma City teaching troopers and police officers an active shooter class when Jesse (the victim’s twin brother) called. All I got out of him was Jacob has been stabbed.” Sobbing as he read his victim impact statement, Lt. Crockett said, “I asked God, please God, not my son, please let him be okay.
“The Stillwater chief of police, a friend for many years, Chief McNickle told me Jacob had been viciously attacked and had not made it.”
Describing his shock and disbelief, the victim’s father said, “I had met this kid. He’d been in my house.
“Jacob and Jesse had befriended Marin in high school,” the victim’s father said.
Addressing his son’s killer, Lt. Crockett told him, “They loved you like a brother. They trusted you. I will never know why you committed this horrible and evil act. You are a coward. He never had a chance.
“My family doesn’t wish hell on anyone. We aren’t pleased about you not receiving the death penalty.
“The irony is if you do find the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no doubt when you enter the gates of heaven, Jacob will greet you. You damn sure don’t deserve it.”
The victim’s mother, Ky Crockett, spoke in court about her unbearable pain: “It hurt to breathe, to open my eyes and face another day without my son.
“Jacob always had a smile for those who needed it.”
Asking her son’s killer if he begged for his life as he was attacked while sitting on a futon, she said, “I read the medical examiner’s report twice. I know each wound, every precious cut on his body.
“I do believe God took Jacob quickly and he did not suffer.”
She said that 800 to 900 people attended her son’s funeral.
Addressing her son’s killer directly, she said, “Isaiah, you will not destroy me, Ben and Jesse.”
Speaking about his intense emotional pain, the victim’s twin brother said in court, “Isaiah, I once treated you as my brother.
“I remember you telling us me and Jacob were your best friends.
“I live in agony every day. You murdered him.
“I have to take medication just to go on.
“Think about how much Jacob loved you,” the victim’s twin brother said, “I forgive you, Isaiah. I forgive you, Isaiah.”
In her news release Wednesday, the DA said, “What we want the public to know and what you glimpsed through the family’s statements is that Jacob Crockett was a young man who frequently stood up for and protected those less fortunate and those who he felt didn’t have the greatest life.
“He did this because of his faith in and relationship with God and how his family raised him.
“He was not a druggie, nor Satanist or a practitioner of witchcraft as he was sometimes portrayed immediately following his murder.”
At 2:46 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2014, a Stillwater police dispatcher received a 911 call from a cell phone in which the caller said, “I murdered someone,” before rambling about sacrificing and magic, according to a police affidavit.
Asked his name, the caller identified himself as Isaiah Marin, and said, “I hacked them to death with a machete,” the affidavit said.
Marin, who was covered in blood and carrying a machete while walking on Highway 51, was arrested a few minutes later by Stillwater police, the affidavit said.
The victim’s brother told police that Marin was a “religious zealot” of the Christian faith and a “heavy drug user,” the affidavit said.
The victim was a Stillwater High School graduate attending Northern Oklahoma College in Stillwater and working as a customer service representative at Carmike Cinema of Stillwater.
The victim’s obituary said that he was a born-again Christian and member of Life Church TV in Stillwater.
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