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Man convicted of murder 2 months after being released from prison

Harry November 15, 2024

Marquise Sheppard gained freedom less than two months after being released from prison in June 2023. July 31, 2023, murders of Ciera Webster-Moorer and Demarco Moorer.

Now his next chance at freedom won’t last more than 40 years.

In September, a jury found Sheppard, 30, guilty of four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon under disability. Deaths of 33-year-old Webster-Moorer and 30-year-old MoorerHe died after being shot during a fight in the 3200 block of Plum Creek Drive.

On Thursday, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Bill Sperlazza sentenced Sheppard to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 46½ years.

At around 11.50pm on July 31, 2023, a group of five men, including Sheppard, went to a row of apartment buildings to get into a fight. Webster-Moorer and another woman got into a fistfight, but the fight was broken up, according to court records. Witnesses testified that several people then began fighting and Moorer yelled about someone pulling a gun on him before gunshots rang out.

Five people arrived at the apartments and fled less than 10 minutes later in an SUV that was pulled over by Columbus police, according to court records. A firearm fired from the SUV was recovered and matched the incident, prosecutors said.

Family members of the Moorers spoke in court Thursday, telling the judge the couple has seven children, the youngest of whom recently turned 3. A family member said classmates teased one of the couple’s children about his parents’ death, which prompted him to investigate on his own at age 7 and discover how his parents died.

Judge Sperlazza also noted in sentencing that Sheppard was released from prison on June 7, 2023, less than two months before the shooting. He said Sheppard was serving a prison sentence on unrelated weapons charges and had a criminal history dating back to when he was 12 years old.

“It amazes me that once you get out of prison you can’t save yourself and say that this life of crime, violence and guns is over,” Sperlazza said. “I don’t see an ounce of remorse for the deaths of two people.”

Sperlazza also denied Sheppard’s attorney’s request to vacate the jury verdict because he failed to disclose that one of the jurors was a retired prosecutor. Sheppard plans to appeal his conviction.

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