Humboldt Justice With John Chiv: Preliminary Hearing in Sexual Assault Case

John Chiv covers the local legal system for his blog. He shares his observations on some of the more high profile trials with us in our Humboldt Justice guest column.

A preliminary hearing was held yesterday for Markis Shirley in the sexual assault of a Eureka woman. Note: Victim’s of sexual assault in California are protected by the law and court records only use a pseudonym, Jane Doe, when referring to a woman victim.

John Chiv, courtroom watcher and local blogger, was there to follow the legal proceedings. He writes,

chivJane Doe, a 33 year old, who has lived in Eureka for two years took the stand yesterday to testify about her alleged rape by Markis Shirley. Before she took the stand, she seemed extremely nervous, holding hands with her friend Nathan King.

She told Deputy District Attorney Stacey Eads that she made a living “trimming” and “escorting” via a website. On October 4, Jane Doe got a text message from a “potential client.” He told her he got her number and “wanted to meet up.” She told him where she was staying, which was at the Days Inn in Eureka. She had never met this client before. She told him she would meet him in the parking lot and then have him come up to her room. Jane Doe said her “on and off again” boyfriend, King, who is a good friend was with her when she received the first text message. Her friend left and went to Denny’s to wait for her. She said her friend and she had a routine. She would text him  if she had received the money and it was safe. If not, he would know something was wrong.

She said she met the client in the parking lot, brought him up to her room. They chatted for a minute. She asked for the money. As the client reached in his pocket, she sent a text to her friend. The client then informed her he had lost the money. She sent another text to King, saying, “Wait.” As the client was getting ready to leave, she said to him, “Maybe another time.’ He opened the door a bit as if he was going to leave and then shut the door.

Shirley, Markis

Shirley, Markis

She identified Shirley as that client.

Jane Doe said, “I just knew I was in trouble. He jumped towards me,” she said he had a sharp object that he held to her side. She said she could not see the object but Shirley held it against her. “I felt it puncturing my skin.” She said this was on her lower right side above her hip.

DDA Stacy Eads: “Did he say anything to you?”

Jane Doe: “He said I had to listen to him or he is going to cut me. To just do what he said.”

Jane Doe said Shirley grabbed her legs and threw her on the bed. She was lying on her back. He ripped off her pants and “my panties.” He told her to remove her bra and top and was yelling at her. She said even though he was holding the sharp object in one hand, the way he was holding it, he could use both hands. Shirley kept telling her, “I will cut you.”

“He got on top of me. I begged him to at least put on a condom. It was important even though I was scared and he did.” She said that he made her kiss him and then he flipped her over. “[H]e did penetrate me. Before he penetrated me, he performed oral sex on me as I was crying.”

DDA Eads: “Did his tongue penetrate your vagina?”

Jane Doe: “Yes.” She said this softly and was crying on the stand as she said it.

“I was lying on my back, he spread my legs, after he was done, he flipped me over, put condom on, he first penetrated me while I was on my back, then he flipped me over. I felt the knife again on my back. He was telling me do I like to be cut, if I was a good girl he wouldn’t cut me, if I’d stop crying it would be over quicker.”

She said Shirley took off his pants and underwear but kept his shirt on during sex.

DDA Eads: “Why did you tell him to put a condom on?”

Jane Doe: “If I didn’t have a choice to change the situation, I didn’t want to get a disease or pregnant by this person raping me. It was the one thing I could control.”

“He was upset with me because I could not get wet in his words. He said it would go quicker but I couldn’t because I was being raped.”

He kept talking and pushing her face into the blankets. If she tried to talk, Shirley pushed her face down into the bed.”

Her phone kept ringing while he was raping her. “He stopped at one point and asked me who is this calling?” Jane Doe said that is when her friend knocked on the door. She said Markis had her cell phone and he held it up to her and said you tell him to leave or I will cut him too.”

On the phone, King asked her, “What is going on? Is everything okay?”

“I was trying to say I was okay” but she said her friend could tell from her voice something was wrong. “Nathan said you are not okay. I’m coming in.”

She said when her friend opened the door, she had yelled “Rape, Rape, please help me” hoping the night manager or someone else would hear her.

At this point a woman in the audience who knew Shirley interrupted with a comment. Judge Reinholtsen admonished her.

King had a key and he tried to open the door “but Markis had latched it.” She said Shirley had the knife pressed against her neck and was telling her to get her friend to leave. “When Nathan opened the door, Markis grabbed his stuff,” Jane Doe said she took that opportunity to unlatch the door. “Markis fled the room” and her friend took off after him.

“I sat on the floor and cried,” said Jane Doe.  She waited for her friend to come back and he told her to call the police. “I was scared to call the police because of my profession,” she said. Her friend talked to her and he called the police and she spoke with the 911 operator.

“Before the police officer came, I came up with a cover lie so it wouldn’t look like I was prostituting,” said Jane Doe. “The story was she was in the parking lot, Shirley was at the bus stop, she invited him to “smoke weed and that’s when he attacked me. That is the story I gave the police officer.”

She said later when she spoke to Detective Ron Harpham, when he was taking pictures in her hotel room, that is when she told him the truth. Before the police arrived, Jane Doe said she put “her weed and weed bong away.”

Asked to describe her injuries, she said she had a “scrape from his knife on her neck, a not so prominent injury on her side” and when she was medically examined, she had “some ripping and tearing to her vagina.”

Jane Doe told Ms. Eads that she did not initially tell the police about text messages Shirley had sent her about wanting his stuff back. He had left some things behind in the room and others he had dropped while fleeing in the hallway. She said she told him no and that he would have to deal with the police. She said “he made a joke like I really wanted the police to know what I did for a living.”

During cross, Mr. David Lee, Shirley’s court appointed attorney asked her if she was living at or using hotels for work and she said both, while trying to save money for a place.

There were no specifics stated on the website about services or amounts, no specifics discussed in text messages, $300 was the amount discussed and that she offered him weed before asking for money but not sure he smoked any.

“If Mr. Shirley had the $300, you would have consented,” asked Mr. Lee.

“Yes,” said Jane Doe.

She answered a question by Mr. Lee saying that the last time she had penetrative sex before Shirley came over was more than 24 hours and that it was not rough. That while she gave King money for gas or if he needed money, he was just her friend making sure she was safe, denying Mr. Lee’s insinuation that they had any arrangement for a cut.

She said she did not see the sharp object when Shirley fled and nothing was found in the hallway.


Nathan King, glared at Markis Shirley when he took the stand and a few times during his testimony. He said Jane Doe was his ex-girlfriend and good friend. He met her over a year ago. His testimony was pretty much the same as Doe’s except she said Shirley came over around 1 or 2 a.m. and King said more like 3:30 or 4. He also said he initially asked the night manager to call the police while he was in pursuit of Shirley but then told him to wait until he talked to Doe. He said that he when he opened the door and Jane Doe yelled rape, he shut the door. He broke down on the stand as he was saying that he realized what had happened. He said Shirley came out the door, had no pants on, jacket and shoes in his hand and that Shirley dropped these and an used condom while fleeing.

He said he convinced Jane Doe to call the police and told her, “You are not going to get in trouble for being an escort. You need to call the police, what this guy did is dead wrong.”

King said when he did not get any response from Doe via text or his calls, it was about 15 minutes until he got to the hotel and knocked on her door.

Detective Ron Harpham described getting the call at 6:35 a.m., how he was asked for assistance by Officer Corsetti and he arrived at Days Inn from his home around 7 a.m. He was briefed by Officer Corsetti, then Officer Andrew Endsley, who was the primary officer on the scene and who was guarding the evidence in the hallway and the room. Detective Harpham said he asked Jane Doe to go into the room because there were a lot of items and piles of clothes and he needed her assistance in identifying relevant evidence to gather and photograph and for her to tell him what happened. Detective Harpham described in detail how he collected and secured evidence and where the items he saw were located and what he found. He said Jane Doe told him, her “panties were removed by force.”

“The southwest corner of the bed was smeared with mascara which matched the makeup on her face,” said Detective Harpham. “She said that was from her face being pushed down when she was on her stomach.”

A wallet containing an ID with Shirley’s picture and two other ID cards identifying him were found. He said the victim’s story was very consistent with what she told him at the hotel and later at the station when he took her statement.

After developing probable cause, he put out a Be On the Lookout for Shirley. On October 13, an EPD officer recognized him and Shirley fled when the officer told him, “It’s time for you to come in,” to which Shirley replied, “I’m not ready” and started running. This was near Buhne and Summer. Shirley was apprehended by four police officers near California Street. Even after he was in cuffs, he kept kicking at the officers and had to be restrained and taken into custody. Shirley was laughing in court as Detective Harpham was testifying about him being arrested.

Detective Harpham said there was no semen found in the condom or any fresh semen on the clothes.

Earlier Chapters:

 

 

 

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26 Comments
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william tillman
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william tillman
8 years ago

He belongs to one of the local gangs and they felt that these people were in there territory with out permission.

Dumboldt
Guest
Dumboldt
8 years ago

So what’s your point?

Dave
Guest
Dave
8 years ago
Reply to  Dumboldt

Under there law if you make money illegally you owe them taxes or the punishment to women is RAPE

Dumboldt
Guest
Dumboldt
8 years ago

Apparently you associate with these people so maybe you should offer this information to the DA and help convict this parasite.

Paleeeze
Guest
Paleeeze
8 years ago

So if he paid for it she wouldn’t of called the cops? I think this story is bullshit!

Bro
Guest
Bro
8 years ago
Reply to  Paleeeze

It doesn’t matter if she’s a prostitute or not. She did not consent. She said no. It was not okay.

tugboat
Guest
8 years ago

Are you saying there is a” Mafia” in Eureka ?

brent
Guest
brent
8 years ago

He’s a crip from socal since when do they control downtown eureka probably just thought he could get away with it like he did a hundred times before. There was a guy in my town that had raped his down syndrome foster sister for years. He was a serial sex offender when he grew up couldn’t stop himself even with his blood relatives just a sexual predator. He eventually got ran out of town no one wanted him living there and was stabbed in LA. Justice for what he did to a lot of women.

Bro
Guest
Bro
8 years ago
Reply to  brent

He’s a local

nines
Guest
8 years ago

It’s official. I need some aspirin now.

dustin s
Guest
dustin s
8 years ago

I know who this guy as I met him a little while ago and ever since I’ve known him I would ever think he could do this. I mean he might do this and that and have his flaws but he has always been totally respectful and around nice, he doesn’t try to assault people for sex or any of that crap so to say that he did this I don’t think so

Well?
Guest
Well?
8 years ago
Reply to  dustin s

Which one is it, “he might do it” or “to say that he did this I don’t think so”?

Mogtx
Guest
8 years ago

Gotta luv that picture

brent
Guest
brent
8 years ago

Brother he did it. I will say it again he did it this is just a side of him you haven’t seen the freaky side. Her story sounds legit why because it’s true.

N
Guest
N
8 years ago

Sex workers are very vulnerable . I despise people who take advantage of the vulnerable. It doesn’t matter that she would have given consent for pay. She did not consent and he knew he was raping her and threatening her life.

Steve
Guest
Steve
8 years ago

I admire Jane Doe’s courage. It must be difficult for her.

JaneDoe
Guest
JaneDoe
8 years ago

I want to thank the majority of you for your supportive comments it means more than words can describe. I was scared to tell my story I didn’t think I could handle the pain of coming out with my profession. I can’t tell you how hard my life is now and how much pain I’m in but just reading the positive comments help.

Dumboldt
Guest
Dumboldt
8 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoe

You’re doing the right thing. If he’s capable of doing this to you then he’s capable of doing the same to other women so keep at it.

N
Guest
N
8 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoe

Thank you for your courage. My rapist got away with it, like so many others. I hope things start looking up for you. Much love.

R.S. Arnold
Guest
R.S. Arnold
8 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoe

I don’t care who you are, what you doing, what you were wearing, who you were with, NO means NO. I’m glad you came forward and are pressing charges against this creep. If you are offered services by the North Coast Rape Crisis Team please use their services. They are very nice and understanding.

Lisa Cooney
Guest
Lisa Cooney
8 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoe

Hard times could fall on anyone, and we end up in situations we shouldn’t be in. I hope you find a safer profession… Sounds like he intentionally set you up to be raped. I’m truly sorry this happened to you. Grace, peace, and healing to your spirit! Hold your head up high, too!

Steve
Guest
Steve
8 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoe

Nothing wrong with your profession as long as you freely chose it. You actually did a lot of things right in this case.

Who
Guest
Who
8 years ago

This whole thing seems so pathetic is this what we want for our children. Oh how wonderful the black market is . She makes her money trimming and escorting oh how beautiful this black market is or not .

MorrLove
Guest
8 years ago

Prostitution or Escort services should be legalized, for the safety reasons. People who are violated in this profession often run into problems of abuse. The individuals who abuse the service are most of the time not attach to their feeling or anyone else. So their abuse goes into drugs or becoming violent even both. Making this service legal will make less people at risk and more people will be off some drugs that are abused. Especially Eureka…..

Who
Guest
Who
8 years ago
Reply to  MorrLove

You know I have seen it myself a 74-year-old elderly marijuana grower making the case to legalize prostitution so he can get laid personally it makes me sick.

brent
Guest
brent
8 years ago

Thanks for getting this guy off the street matter of time before he crept in some high school girls window.