BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Dennis Marcum drew this on his cell wall before he died.
(Gary Landers photo)
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HAMILTON -- Within hours of drawing a portrait of Jesus Christ on his Butler County Jail cell wall, accused murderer Dennis A. Marcum tied a sheet around his neck and hanged himself.
"He told an inmate an hour before he died that he wanted to be with Jesus," his brother, Jerry Marcum of Hamilton, said Friday. "This was his way of saying he's sorry for what he did."
Inmates discovered his body at 9 p.m. Thursday. They and jail staff paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive him before calling for help, said Chief Deputy Rick Jones of the Butler County Sheriff's Department.
In a courtroom Friday, 11 hours after the hanging, a county employee told the family of one of two alleged murder victims of Mr. Marcum that he had committed suicide.
Dennis Marcum
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The family of murder victim James D. Petree was waiting for Mr. Marcum -- who told police "demons" made him kill the men -- to appear for a pre-trial hearing.
Mr. Petree's father said he was relieved he and his family will not have to endure the pain of a trial. Yet, James H. Petree of Hamilton said he sympathized with Mr. Marcum's family. He and the accused killer's father, Ted Marcum, have been friends for years.
"I don't want anybody to die," Mr. Petree said. "I feel sorry for his parents."
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The cell where Marcum died.
(Gary Landers photo)
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Mr. Marcum, 38, of Morgan Township, was accused of stabbing two Hamilton men to death in a three-day span: a former neighbor, 64-year-old Melvin Powell, on July 22, and a friend, 33-year-old James D. Petree, on July 25.
At an August preliminary hearing, a Hamilton police detective said Mr. Marcum told him "demons" compelled him to murder the men.
Authorities say the attacks were gruesome. Mr. Marcum, police allege, beat Mr. Powell with a tree limb, stabbed him to death, poured gasoline on his body and set his house on fire.
Police said he drove to Mr. Petree's home three days later and struck him with a tire iron, then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death. He surrendered to police on Aug. 4.
The Butler County coroner's office said results of an autopsy would not be known until Monday.
But Capt. Charles Proffitt, warden of the county jail, said Mr. Marcum hanged himself from a standing position from a 7-foot-high bar on his jail-cell door. He slumped so that the sheet tightened around his neck and caused him to pass out. The full weight of his body pulled the sheet tighter around his neck and killed him, Capt. Proffitt said.
Mr. Marcum was in the end of a line of eight individual unlocked cells that opened to a narrow passageway behind bars.
The Hamilton Life Squad transported him to Hamilton Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Jerry Marcum said his brother committed suicide not to escape the death penalty or life in prison, but as a way to express his remorse. He also wanted to spare his family and the victims' families the emotional torture of a trial.
"He didn't want to take my mom and dad and the other families through hell," he said. "My brother wasn't a cold-blooded killer." Detectives investigating Mr. Marcum's death say no foul play occurred. A deputy last talked with Mr. Marcum at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Capt. Proffitt said.
"He wanted to know when a doctor was coming in because he wanted pills to help him sleep," he said.
Although Mr. Marcum had a history of psychological problems, he was not on a suicide watch.
"He never showed any suicidal tendencies," Capt. Proffitt said. "You can have psychological problems without being suicidal." Neither Mr. Marcum's family nor his attorney, Ronald Morgan, complained Friday about his treatment in the jail.
Mr. Marcum had been indicted on four counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
He had entered a not-guilty plea at his arraignment Wednesday and was to appear Friday morning for a pre-trial hearing before Common Pleas Judge H.J. Bressler. Mr. Morgan had said after the arraignment that he might change the plea later to not guilty by reason of insanity.
Mr. Marcum's family grieved for their brother at his parents' home in Butler County's Morgan Township, west of Hamilton. That's where he had been living. Relatives described him as a talented woodworker who made gun cabinets and built the wooden railing on the front porch of his parents' house and a large clock in their living room.
They also said he was a caring, but deeply troubled man who was separated from his current wife and had four children and a step-child by two previous wives.
Court records show a significant criminal history. Over the past 18 years, Mr. Marcum was convicted of:
Breaking and entering, safecracking and grand theft in January 1994. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Breaking and entering and safecracking in August 1993. He was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison.
Two counts of aggravated burglary, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon in January 1982. His sentence was 6-35 years in prison.
Breaking and entering in January 1980. He was sentenced to 1-5 years in prison.
But Mr. Marcum's family members said the two murders he was accused of committing were completely out of character.
Wanda Hall of Englewood, Ohio, near Dayton, said a combination of alcohol and anti-depressant drugs caused her brother to kill the two people.
"I think it had a big bearing on what he did," she said. "He was a good person."
The murders tormented Mr. Marcum, especially the death of Mr. Petree, whom he had considered his best friend, Mrs. Hall said. "He told me it was eating away at him like a cancer and just kept getting worse and worse," she said. "He did have a conscience. He didn't understand why he did it."
She said her family knew all too well the pain the families of the two murder victims were going through. A half-brother of Mr. Marcum's, Kenny Hurst, was shot to death 11 years ago.
"Our hearts go out to both families."
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