Police say Seabee admitted pulling trigger in fatal shooting
Court documents detail events that led up to Mission Oaks slaying
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Recently released court records shed light on the chain of events leading up to the Dec. 1 shooting death of John Marmo, 27, in front of his Camarillo condominium.

According to a declaration for an arrest warrant filed by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department on Dec. 12, Matthew Toerner, 20, admitted to detectives that he pulled the trigger in the early morning slaying. Investigators said the shooting was sparked by a bitter custody battle between Marmo and his ex-wife, Rebecca Braswell, 26, who is also implicated in the death.

In addition to Toerner and Braswell, police arrested a third murder suspect, Shannon Butler, a 23-year-old Sparks, Nev., resident.

Kansas native Seth Hardy, 20, was also arrested in connection with the case. According to police, Hardy admitted that on two separate occasions in October 2006 he had attached Coleman Powermax propane canisters to the exhaust pipe of Marmo's 1999 Hyundai in an attempt to blow up the car and kill Marmo.

Braswell, Toerner and Butler- all of whom have pleaded not guilty- appeared in Ventura County Superior Court last week. Their cases were consolidated, and they are due back in court April 17.

Hardy, who also pleaded not guilty, will return to court in early May.

All of the suspects are Seabees who were stationed in Ventura County.

Arrests of the four came quickly following the 6 a.m. shooting on the 1200 block of Mission Verde Drive, according to the warrant.

Sheriff's detectives learned from Marmo's roommate Sheryl O'Neil that she believed the shooting was connected to the ongoing custody dispute between Marmo and Braswell over their 5-year-old daughter. Police said O'Neil was awakened by the gunshots and called 911 when she found Marmo dead in the driveway.

Two police reports- one filed with the Ventura Police Department in mid-October, the other filed with the sheriff's department a few weeks later- told of Hardy's two attempts to blow up Marmo's car and named Braswell and Butler as possible suspects. The reports led police to question Hardy and the two women.

Following his arrest on Dec. 4, Hardy waived his Miranda rights and admitted to police that Butler had given him $300 to rig Marmo's car with propane canisters, the warrant said.

Taped confession

The next day, Dec. 5, police had an unnamed informant wear a wire and meet with Butler in order to illicit a confession. During the recorded conversation, Butler allegedly said she was there when Marmo was shot but that Toerner was the one who pulled the trigger.

"I heard one shot, but I could not hear anything else because the gun went off next to my head," Butler said, according to the warrant.

The informant was told by detectives to tell Butler that he would dispose of the gun. The informant told Butler to leave the gun in his truck, which he parked in front of a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Ventura, records show. Detectives said they watched Butler leave a backpack in the truck's back seat. Inside the backpack detectives said they found an unloaded Rutger 9 mm handgun and a loaded magazine clip.

Detectives soon arrested Butler, who also waived her Miranda rights and admitted she had acted as lookout for Hardy while he planted the propane canisters.

Following Butler's admission, detectives learned from Navy officials that Toerner, a resident of Laguna Hills, Calif., was serving in Okinawa, Japan, where he had been deployed two days after Marmo's slaying, the warrant said.

Sheriff's detectives flew to Japan and met with Toerner at Camp Foster. During questioning, Toerner allegedly confirmed that Butler had led Hardy to booby-trap Marmo's car, court records show. Toerner also reportedly told investigators that after Marmo found the explosives, Butler had asked Hardy in early November to shoot Marmo.

Toerner said that he initially refused to get involved in the alleged plot but that on the night before the shooting Butler told him Marmo had threatened her life. Toerner said Butler came to his barracks again around 5 a.m. on the morning of the shooting and once more said Marmo intended to kill her.

Toerner said Butler rented a car to drive to Marmo's home and gave him the gun used in the shooting.

Toerner said they waited in the car for Marmo, and when he came out of the house, Toerner said, he "emptied the clip at him." Toerner said he didn't know if he had fired four or five shots; they fled the quiet Mission Oaks neighborhood without knowing whether Marmo had been hit.

Custody battle

Braswell, nearly five months pregnant with their daughter, married Marmo while the two were serving in the Navy and stationed in Sicily in 2001. Soon after they returned to California in 2004, the couple filed for divorce.

Their custody dispute lasted two years and was rife with accusations of abuse and neglect on both sides, arguments over visitation rights, even allegations of death threats. On Oct. 31, a month before he was shot, Marmo was awarded joint custody of his daughter.

He was killed on what would have been his fifth wedding anniversary.