O'dea Student Gets 15 Years For Fatally Shooting 17-Year-Old

For most of his days as an O'Dea High School student, Marlon Bush studied hard, played sports, worked as a volunteer and eyed both college and a career in the entertainment business.

But all that vanished in the time it took Bush to get caught up in guns, gangs and drugs. Instead of attending college he will, he says, write a book from prison aimed at helping other youths avoid what happened to him.

Bush's alarming spiral culminated yesterday in King County Superior Court, where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for fatally shooting a Garfield High School student last April.

Bush pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder in connection with the April 8 death of 17-year-old Marek Murray outside a Skyway apartment complex and to first-degree robbery for holding up a Beacon Hill bank the next day.

Until then, Bush had a clean record, had been volunteering at an elderly care center and sought to be a bone-marrow donor.

Bush told police he thought Murray had informed on a friend arrested the week before on drug charges. Bush originally was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty when prosecutors reduced the charge to second-degree murder.

Bush maintained he helped in the fatal assault but didn't pull the trigger.

Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz said proof problems with the case prompted his office to accept Bush's plea to the reduced charge, but that there was no strong evidence implicating anyone else in the shooting.

Family and friends of both young men jammed Judge LeRoy McCullough's courtroom.

Murray's brother, Monte, told the judge the harm Bush has done to the family will far outlast any prison term.

"In a few short years he will be walking among us a free man while we stay prisoners of our loss," Monte Murray said.

Bush's mother, Chris, said her son also is a victim and urged prosecutors to find the person who shot Murray.

"These were two good Catholic boys who were naive and got caught up in a world they had no business being caught up in," she said.

Bush told McCullough he got involved in a situation that quickly spun out of control and did not mean for Murray to die.

Murray was described as a bright student who began skipping school and worrying his teachers; a nice kid who became troubled.

Bush told police he and Murray were friends, but witnesses told police Bush talked of killing him after Murray and another youth were arrested April 2 on drug charges. He apparently thought Murray was responsible for the arrests.

Bush admitted he manipulated Murray into being at the Skyway apartment complex where he was killed, but denied actually shooting him. Murray was shot once in the back of his head with a .45-caliber bullet.

Police think the murder occurred near midnight on April 8, although Murray's body wasn't discovered until April 10.

On April 9, Bush aimed a gun on a Beacon Hill bank teller and along with an accomplice stole almost $3,000. The men lost the money when a dye pack placed inside the bag by the teller exploded.

Bush received a six-and-a-half year sentence for that crime, to be served concurrently with the murder term.