MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) – The boyfriend of a University of Georgia professor has been acquitted in her May 2019 death at a friend’s house in central Georgia.
A jury heard about four days of testimony and deliberated for about 35 minutes on April 8 before finding Marcus Allen Lillard not guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in the death of Marianne Shockley, the Telegraph newspaper reported. However, the judge did revoke Lillard’s probation on a drug charge.
Shockley, who was 43 when she died, and Lillard, 44, had met decades earlier while studying at Georgia College in Milledgeville and reconnected about a year before her death.
Shockley went to Milledgeville on May 11, 2019, to meet up with Lillard. They went to his father’s home and to some restaurants downtown before going to the home of Clark Heindel, just east of town. They listened to music, drank and did drugs, including ecstasy, the Telegraph reported.
Sometime after 11 p.m. but before midnight, Lillard called and texted some female acquaintances, including two respiratory therapists, asking how to revive an unconscious person, the women testified. One suggested he call 911, but prosecutors said no one made that call until about 1 a.m.