In The News

Court TV: Crime Library
Author: Mark Gribben

Looper was reluctant to talk about specifics of his case, except to say that his family had found two other attorneys that he would like to see take the case.

McCraken "Ken" Poston, a skilled defense attorney who served in the Georgia legislature and had known Looper from his days as an aide, wanted in on the case. Looper said his mother had taken out a second mortgage on her home to pay his fee. The second lawyer, Ron Cordova, was a former Orange County, California prosecutor who had been following the case out of personal interest and said if Poston was going to serve as counsel, he would donate his services for free.

"My family felt like we needed attorneys removed from pressures of the political fray," Looper explained. "And quite frankly, I agree."

St. Petersburg Times: The Nation in Brief

ATLANTA - Crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh, who for years dumped bodies on his north Georgia property and presented families with fake ashes, will plead guilty to criminal charges Friday, prosecutors told family members in a letter.

Ron Cordova, a co-counsel for Marsh, said the agreement calls for a 12-year prison sentence followed by an extended period of probation.

Had he been convicted at trial, Marsh could have faced a prison sentence of 8,000 years on 787 criminal charges of theft and abuse of a corpse.

Responding to an anonymous tip, state officials in 2002 uncovered 334 bodies.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Herbert Franklin would not comment on the letter Tuesday. A judge must approve any agreement before it is valid.

Wikipedia

Ray Brent Marsh was arrested on over 300 felony charges, eventually being charged by the State of Georgia on 787 criminal counts, including theft by deception, abusing a corpse, burial service related fraud and giving false statements. Marsh was facing a sentence of more than eight thousand years. Marsh was represented by attorney McCracken Poston, who years before was the lawyer for Alvin "The Zenith Man" Ridley from nearby Ringgold, Georgia and Ron Cordova of Newport Beach, California. Cordova was a former Orange County, California prosecutor and like Poston, had served in the state legislature. The lawyers first teamed up two years earlier in the trial of Byron Looper for the murder of a Tennessee state senator. The criminal cases were settled after the Georgia Supreme Court had certified for review the defense question of whether or not a human corpse had any pecuniary value, an issue vital to the case in order to determine if the thefts could be criminally prosecuted.