Body camera, confession and forensic testimony heard in Marshall murder trial

Jurors in Rodney Marshall’s double-murder trial heard the prosecution press its central theme Monday: a confession, two shooting scenes and forensic evidence all pointing to the same deadly sequence.

Marshall is on trial in Douglas County District Court for the July 31, 2022 killings of Shelby McCoy, 52, and William D. O’Brien, 43. Prosecutors have said the case will not seek the death penalty, but Marshall still faces two counts of first-degree murder and additional charges tied to the chase and gunfire at officers.

The day’s testimony centered on police body-camera video from the arrest that followed a chase ending in Eudora on Kansas Highway 10. Jurors saw Marshall appear calm as officers took him into custody, and Judge Amy Hanley had already ruled that the video and Marshall’s statements to police could be used at trial. Detective M.T. Brown testified that Marshall kept talking even after he was read his Miranda rights, discussing the victims and claiming they were on a list of child molesters. Police have said they found no evidence that either man was such a person.

The video also captured a strange, unsettling calm. Marshall talked about wanting a McDonald’s smoothie and a drink Brown offered to buy, and he corrected Brown when the officer described his costume, saying it was the Joker, not a Ninja Turtle. Prosecutors used those exchanges to show a defendant who was still speaking freely while officers were processing one of the county’s most serious homicide cases.

According to the state’s account, Marshall dressed in costume and rode a moped to McCoy’s apartment at 1115 Tennessee St. around 1:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022, shot McCoy, then crossed town to 325 Northwood Lane and shot O’Brien. Prosecutors said Marshall later holed up at his residence before leading police on the highway chase and firing from his truck window toward officers. Jurors also heard forensic testimony about the fatal wounds and a ballistics report, evidence the state used to knit the shootings, the confession and the physical proof into one narrative.

The case reached trial after years of delay. Hanley ordered Marshall to stand trial on all nine counts in January 2024, after a preliminary hearing, and the case was delayed several times in 2025 before a May 2026 trial date was set. Jury selection began May 4, and the trial was expected to last three weeks.

The first days of testimony also put the victims’ lives before jurors. O’Brien’s obituary said he was born Dec. 23, 1978, and his funeral service was scheduled for Aug. 9, 2022, at Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence. McCoy was remembered in a fundraiser and obituary description as someone with a very big heart, a reminder of what the state says was lost when the shooting spree began in Lawrence.