For nearly six years, Marcus A. Gibbs dodged local authorities who wanted him on charges of killing his girlfriend in her east Erie apartment — first by fleeing the city and eluding apprehension out of state, then by getting charged and convicted in Texas of killing another person.
Gibbs, a former Erie resident, finally returned home.
After many months of working with authorities in Texas on getting Gibbs released from jail to travel to Erie to face the charges in 32-year-old Selena Wall's death, Erie police and the Erie County District Attorney's Office were able to bring Gibbs to Erie on Wednesday morning. He appeared before Erie 2nd Ward District Judge Ed Wilson shortly before noon Wednesday for his arraignment on criminal homicide, first-degree murder and other charges in the killing of Wall, who died days after Erie police accused Gibbs of shooting her multiple times on Nov. 18, 2018.
Gibbs, still serving a 25-year sentence on his murder conviction in Texas for killing a 22-year-old man in Austin in July 2019, was placed in the Erie County Prison without bond following his arraignment. A lawyer for him was not listed on his criminal docket sheet.
Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said Wednesday that she could not comment on the matter as it is an ongoing investigation.
Deadly confrontation on Hess Avenue
Erie police accuse Gibbs of shooting Wall in her upstairs apartment in the 900 block of Hess Avenue. The shooting was reported at about 4 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2018.
Investigators said Wall was found by police in a third-floor bedroom of the apartment house with multiple gunshot wounds to her body. She told police she was shot by her boyfriend, Marcus, detectives wrote in the initial criminal complaint filed against Gibbs.
More: Convicted in Texas murder, Erie man awaits return to face charges in girlfriend's killing
Another person who was inside the apartment at the time also identified the suspect as Gibbs, according to police. That witness reported hearing yelling before seeing Gibbs running down the stairs and out the door to the apartment, according to information in the complaint.
Wall was rushed to UPMC Hamot and underwent several surgeries, according to investigators. She died on Nov. 20, 2018, and the Erie County Coroner's Office ruled her death a homicide due to multiple gunshot wounds following autopsy.
Gibbs was initially charged with offenses including aggravated assault following the shooting. Detectives withdrew those charges and filed a new set of charges, including criminal homicide, against Gibbs following Wall's death.
Search for an accused killer
Erie police searched known addresses for Gibbs in the city in the days after Wall's death. In late December 2018, a large number of officers converged on an apartment complex on Schaper Avenue, searching without success for Gibbs, after receiving information he might have been spotted there.
The U.S. Marshals Service became involved in the search for Gibbs. The out-of-state locations of those searches included St. Lucie County, Florida, where members of the sheriff's office there posted a notice on Jan. 30, 2019, that Gibbs might have been seen in or around Fort Pierce, Florida.
Gibbs remained elusive, but his name resurfaced in mid-July 2019. Police in Austin, Texas, reported that they were looking for Gibbs as a suspect in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Alexander J. Morgan Jr., reportedly the son of another of Gibbs' girlfriends, in East Austin. Authorities said Morgan was found at an apartment complex with gunshot wounds on the evening of July 18, 2019, and died three days later.
Austin police reported at the time that witnesses told officers two men had reportedly gone to Gibbs' apartment to collect a drug debt from Morgan, and Gibbs became upset. The two reportedly argued before Gibbs took out a pistol and shot Morgan, according to police.
Police took Gibbs into custody in Austin on July 24, 2019, after authorities said they followed up on tips on Gibbs' possible whereabouts. He was indicted in October 2019 in Travis County, Texas for the offense of murder in Morgan's death and was found guilty at trial in early February 2023. Gibbs was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to prosecutors and court officials in Travis County.
Gibbs is tentatively scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearing in the Erie homicide case on Aug. 14, according to information in his criminal docket sheet.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com . Follow him on X @ETNhahn
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Convicted of murder in Texas, Erie man returns to face charges in 2018 fatal shooting
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