PIZZA HAUS ROBBER FACES DECADES IN PEN

PERRYVILLE -- Instead of serving one 20-year prison sentence for multiple felony crimes, a Hillsboro man now faces six criminal charges of 10 to 30 years in prison, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office said.

Michael Louis Marshall, 45, was found guilty by a Circuit Court jury on Wednesday for holding up a cashier in 1998 at the Pizza Haus in Fruitland, said Ian Sutherland, assistant county prosecutor. It took the Perry County jury an hour and a half to find Marshall guilty of robbery and armed criminal action. The trial was moved to Perry County on a change of venue.

Since Marshall turned down an offer to plead guilty to first-degree robbery and armed criminal action, he now faces six class A felony charges in three counties. A class A felony is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison, or life imprisonment.

Marshall had been offered a plea bargain of 20 years in exchange for pleading guilty to two of the three felony charges he faced in Cape Girardeau County, but he declined, Sutherland said."I guess he figured at his age, after 20 years in prison his life would be almost over," the prosecutor said.

Charges of armed criminal action and assaulting a police officer are still pending against Marshall in Pemiscot County. In New Madrid County, he is charged with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action.

On April 8, 1998, Marshall had pulled off Interstate 55 at Fruitland. Several minutes earlier, Javier Fernandez had arrived at the Pizza Haus to meet his girlfriend, Teresa Lutrell, who was closing out the cash register after a slow night. As Lutrell counted cash, Marshall circled the building and parked in the back. When Marshall came in the door holding a shotgun, Lutrell thought it was a joke. Then Marshall ordered Fernandez to lie on the floor and he pointed the gun at Lutrell. He told her to give him the money, and then ordered her to lie on the floor. According to court documents, after the robbery, Marshall drove south on the interstate to New Madrid County and less than two hours later, he stopped to have a beer and some food at the Cottonboll Motel in Marston. Then Marshall went to his truck, got his gun, and robbed the motel's front desk. Several law enforcement agencies in the region were notified, and Marshall was spotted by a Hayti police officer who followed him off the interstate and onto rural county roads.

When Marshall finally stopped, George Nettleson said he got out of his patrol car and approached the pickup truck. Marshall then turned the truck around and attempted to run over Nettleson, who fired a shot as the driver passed. Marshall stopped the truck and attempted to run, but was stopped and arrested within 100 yards from his vehicle. Because crimes took place in three counties, Marshall waited in jail for more than a year in New Madrid County before it was decided to hold the first trial in Cape Girardeau County, said Karen Bolton, who is in charge of the public defender's office in New Madrid and Pemiscot counties. "Cape County had better evidence against him than New Madrid does," Bolton said.

Sutherland credited Lutrell's memory and a composite drawing of the suspect by the Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Department with providing conclusive evidence against Marshall, who said he had not robbed the Pizza Haus. "If you look at the composite drawing and photographs that the Highway Patrol took of Marshall right after the incident, they are almost identical," Sutherland said.

Marshall now awaits sentencing before Judge John Grimm on Jan. 7.