Rapist pleads no contest
in prostitute’s beheading
A convicted rapist charged with beheading and dismembering a Waikiki prostitute pleaded no contest to second-degree murder yesterday.
CORRECTION
Friday, May 21, 2004Donald Barry Marks was released from prison May 15, 2002, after serving time for rape. A story on Page A4 in yesterday's early edition incorrectly said he was released May 15, 2003.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.
Donald Barry Marks was indicted by a state grand jury after the body of 38-year-old Yoko Sanders was discovered at an apartment at 2509 Ala Wai Blvd. Sanders' head and both of her arms had been cut off and were next to her body.
Marks lived in an apartment two doors away. Sanders' boyfriend found her body after she failed to return to her Moiliili residence.
Videotape recorded by surveillance cameras at 2509 Ala Wai Blvd. showed Marks entering the building and exiting the elevator on the fifth floor with Sanders, police said. The resident manager said Marks was the last person to leave the apartment in which Sanders' body was found.
Marks was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl while on probation for theft and credit-card fraud. He was convicted of the rape in 1994 and released on parole in September 1998, but taken back into custody the following January after testing positive for cocaine use.
He served out his term and was released from Halawa Correctional Facility on May 15, 2003.
Although second-degree murder carries a life prison term with the possibility of parole, prosecutors said they will ask that Marks serve extended terms because of the heinous nature of the crime.
