Murder Angers Omak Police Question Why Eastern State Didn’T Keep Suicide Patient Longer

Last week, Todd A. Marsh was deemed a ticking time bomb.

He told Omak police he had a gun and wanted to kill himself. The only thing stopping him, Marsh told police, was that he didn’t want to do it in front of his preschool-age son.

Police and mental health workers took the seven-time felon seriously, fearing he would explode in violence against himself or others.

“They felt he was going to kill someone,” acting Omak Police Chief Larry Schreckengast said.

Marsh was sent to Eastern State Hospital Wednesday afternoon for a 72-hour evaluation. But 48 hours after entering the Medical Lake hospital, Marsh was released and headed back to Omak.

One day later, police say, Marsh bludgeoned a 70-year-old woman to death. After the killing, Marsh allegedly stole her jewelry, tried to trade it for drugs, then assaulted another woman.

“We’re very certain we have the right person,” Schreckengast said.

But he is less certain why Marsh was in Omak at all when the killing occurred Saturday.

“It raises a lot of concerns over the process they use to evaluate the people that are sent over there,” he said. “The Okanogan County mental health (center) recommended against releasing him, and Eastern released him anyway.”

The killing was particularly brutal.

Marcille C. “Marcie” Robbins, a waitress at Omak restaurants for 40 years, was found dead in her home with two skull fractures, a broken neck, three broken ribs. Both her wrists were broken and she had a stab wound in her back. Robbins’ daughter - who is Schreckengast’s secretary - found her mother’s body.

Schreckengast said his detectives have strong evidence linking Marsh to the killing of Robbins. He said it is unclear whether Marsh knew Robbins.

Police said Marsh was arrested about 10:30 p.m. Saturday while vandalizing cars in the parking lot of the Western Restaurant in Omak. Police said they found Robbins’ jewelry - estimated to be worth less than $200 - and a knife in Marsh’s fanny pack.

Marsh is being held on $1 million bail in the Okanogan County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, assault and felony harassment. He is on suicide watch.

Marsh’s court-appointed attorney, Kelli Armstrong of Omak, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

It’s not the first time a discharge from the hospital, which serves all of Eastern Washington, has angered Schreckengast.

“We deal with this constantly,” he said. “They evaluate them for 72 hours and kick them loose, and we arrest them again. It’s a vicious circle. That’s when we have something like this.”

Releasing Marsh before 72 hours expired means Eastern’s psychiatrists found him to not be an imminent risk of becoming violent, nor seriously ill. The hospital could have asked a court to keep Marsh an additional two weeks if psychiatrists felt he posed a threat.

Anita Cornell, the hospital’s head of social work, said it was “really rare” to see a patient admitted for a 72-hour assessment to be discharged a day early. Such a speedy discharge “would tell me that they don’t need to be here,” she said.

She declined to discuss Marsh’s case, citing laws protecting the confidentiality of mental health patients.

The Medical Lake hospital has been increasingly struggling with overcrowding. Eastern has been over the maximum head count of 219 non-criminal patients about 75 percent of the days since May 1, said Hal Wilson, the hospital’s chief operations officer. Routine overcrowding can threaten federal funding.

On weekends, Eastern usually admits 10 or 15 new patients. So as the weekend approaches, the hospital tries to clear out beds. On the Friday Marsh was discharged, the patient count was at 219. Nine new patients came in over the weekend.

“It’s always a concern, being right at capacity, and knowing we’re going to get patients,” Cornell said. “But we definitely don’t send anyone out who we feel is not ready for discharge, no matter how full we get.”

Pat Terry, head of the state Mental Health Division, said she, too, couldn’t breach confidentiality and talk about Marsh’s case. But she said she does investigate complaints about unusual incidents at state mental hospitals.

Counselors at Okanogan County Counseling, the Omak-based public mental health provider, were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Schreckengast said Marsh acted out while being evaluated by the agency’s counselors last Wednesday afternoon. Officers watching the assessment described Marsh as having violent mood swings, Schreckengast said.

The 38-year-old Omak native has a record of seven felonies, said Okanogan County Prosecutor Rick Weber. They include convictions for burglary, assault and possession of a gun.

After Robbins’ killing, Marsh tried unsuccessfully to trade her jewelry for drugs at the Okanogan home of a female acquaintance, county Sheriff Jim Weed said.

While drinking beer at the home, Marsh flew into a rage and broke the acquaintance’s nose, Weed said. The sheriff said he was unsure if Marsh suffers from a mental illness.

“The decision to release this guy was based on his past, and the information (hospital staff) had at the time,” he said. “If they had information that the guy was going to kill someone, I’d have some heartburn.”

At the time of suicide threat, Marsh was living with his mother, Carol Marsh, at the Omak Lodge motel. Carol Marsh has custody of Todd Marsh’s son, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Kathy Spears said.

Carol Marsh declined to talk about her son when contacted late Tuesday.

Robbins’ son and daughters consoled each other Tuesday and recalled their mother’s life. Marcie and Tom Robbins moved to the area in 1948 from Oklahoma. He went to work at Omak’s lumber mill, and she began working as a waitress. Her son, Gary Robbins, said his mother was a lively and strong-willed woman who never forgot a customer’s name.

After retiring 10 years ago, Robbins volunteered to shuttle poor and mentally ill residents without cars to errands.

“If she knew you and you needed help, she’d help you,” Gary Robbins said. He was unsure if his mother knew Marsh.

Tom Robbins died in 1982 of cancer, a loss from which Gary is still recovering. His mother’s death is too baffling to make sense out of yet, he said.

“You never get over it, you just get used to it,” he said.