Douglas County jury convicts man in two Lawrence murders, officer attack attempt

A Douglas County jury has held Rodney Ericson Marshall responsible for the killings of Shelby Len McCoy and William Dale O’Brien, giving Lawrence its clearest answer yet in a case that has shadowed the city since the summer of 2022 and now moves to sentencing.

Jurors found Marshall, 55, guilty on Monday of nine felonies, including two counts of first-degree murder and charges tied to the attack on law enforcement officers. The verdict means the jury phase is over in one of the most closely watched violent-crime prosecutions in recent Douglas County history. Marshall now faces sentencing in Douglas County District Court on Aug. 13, where a judge will decide the punishment for crimes that prosecutors said tore through central Lawrence and escalated into a chase onto Kansas Highway 10.

The killings happened on July 31, 2022, at separate locations in central Lawrence. Prosecutors said Marshall moved between the scenes in disguise, with witnesses describing a blond wig, an eye mask and what one witness called a “ninja turtle costume” as he rode a blue scooter toward the victims’ homes. The case quickly became far more than a double homicide. Prosecutors said Marshall later shot at five law enforcement officers during a roughly 20-minute pursuit that ended near Eudora, just east of the Church Street exit on Kansas Highway 10.

The verdict also covered the law enforcement encounter that turned the case into a regional manhunt. Local reporting said officers chased Marshall through Lawrence and onto the highway before Kansas Highway Patrol and other agencies helped bring the pursuit to an end. He was arrested near Eudora after the chase, adding a public-safety dimension that made the case resonate well beyond the two homicide scenes on Tennessee Street and Northwood Lane.

Trial began May 4 with jury selection and was expected to take about three weeks. Deputy District Attorney David Melton told jurors the case would not seek the death penalty. During trial, prosecutors said Marshall confessed after the shootings and told officers he killed McCoy and O’Brien, later saying he believed the victims were child molesters. The defense argued that heavy drug use and other factors distorted Marshall’s statements.

For the families of McCoy and O’Brien, the verdict delivers a measure of accountability after nearly four years of uncertainty. For Lawrence, it closes the jury phase of a case that forced police, prosecutors and neighbors to revisit one of the city’s most violent episodes since 2022, even as the final word on punishment now waits for August.