'Extremely dangerous' inmate captured' after manhunt in Conroe

Escaped inmate captured in Conroe Escaped inmate captured in Conroe Photo: Scott Engle, Scott Engle Photo: Scott Engle, Scott Engle Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close 'Extremely dangerous' inmate captured' after manhunt in Conroe 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

A nine-hour manhunt transfixed Conroe on Sunday when an MMA fighter wanted for multiple murders escaped while guards transporting him from Michigan to Texas stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's.

Cedric Joseph Marks, who has two warrants for murder and whom authorities described as "extremely dangerous," stripped off his shirt and ran from Conroe's North Loop 336 McDonald's around 7:15 a.m. Marks is a 44-year-old professional MMA fighter known as "Spiderman," who most recently fought in the Moore Extreme Fighting Championship in Payson, Arizona.

What followed was a day-long manhunt involving 17 agencies, which deployed helicopters, K-9 tracking dogs, multiple ground units and automated phone calls warning local residents to stay indoors.

By Sunday afternoon, K-9 units had tracked Marks to where he hid inside a 55-gallon trash can two blocks away.

"(Marks) surrendered without incident," said Conroe Police Department Chief Jeff Christy following Marks' recapture.

Marks' journey to a Conroe neighborhood began months before in Temple, north of Austin.

There, his ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, 28, had filed a temporary protective order against Marks in July of 2018 describing Marks as a "pathological liar," a "master manipulator" and a "psychopath" who bragged about killing pets as a child and at least twice choked her into unconsciousness.

"Every time I try to break up with him, he threatens me," Scott wrote in a court document. "I have to stay away from him to stay safe and to protect the people I love."

That August, Scott allegedly found that Marks had broken into her home, where he threatened her and her family until her nine-year-old called 911.

And then on Jan. 4, Scott and her friend, Michael Swearingin, 32, went missing. Their bodies were recovered on Jan. 15 from a shallow grave in rural Oklahoma.

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After the disappearance of Scott and Swearingin, the Bloomington, Minn. Police Department told KWTX that they were reopening the case of another one of Marks' former girlfriends, April Pease.

She disappeared from Minnesota in 2009. Pease and Marks had been in a custody dispute over their child at the time of her disappearance.

When Marks was found last month in Michigan, Texas Prisoners Transport Services was hired to extradite him back to Bell County, where Temple is located.

When a Temple newspaper reported on Marks' extradition to Texas, Foster wrote: "Evil is headed back our way."

Texas Prisoners Transport Services did not respond to multiple requests to comment about the escape.

After Mark's capture, many in the Conroe area breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was very critical" that Marks was apprehended before sundown, Chief Christy said at a press conference.

Christy added the suspect will remain in Conroe as authorities interview him, the guards and the other 9 inmates who were being transported during the escape.

Trenton Hooker, whose family lives about a half mile from the escape scene, said he had been praying for a safe resolution.

"It's just very close to home," he said. "His capture is definitely going to help us sleep better tonight."

Late Sunday, Chief Christy stated: "At this time the circumstances surrounding Marks escape are still under investigation. Once the investigation is complete the finding will be presented to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Stephen Tucker Paulsen and Jose Gonzalez contributed to this report.

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