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Taylor Marks’ Background

Kristie Marks and her husband, Bruce, could not have had kids of their own, so they adopted a little girl and named her Taylor. She was showered with love and given almost anything she wanted.

Bruce passed away in 2002. As Taylor entered her teens, she began to rebel, and her grades declined, leading to conflict between her and her mother.

After finishing high school in 2008, Taylor attended college, but her relationship with her mother remained rocky.

By 2009, 58-year-old Kristie was operating a successful home healthcare business, and Taylor moved in with her boyfriend, Brian Smith.

Crime

After two months of barely speaking, Taylor contacted her mother, saying she wanted to see her. Kristie was excited, and on October 24, 2009, she went to pick up Taylor from an apartment complex in Akron, Ohio, at around 8 p.m.

Once there, Kristie was brutally stabbed multiple times in the parking lot.

Taylor called the police, crying that a masked man had stabbed her mother.

Smith got on the phone and claimed he tried to chase the man and was also cut.

Kristie was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities found the murder weapon and Kristie’s purse in some bushes near the crime scene. Her money and car keys were still in the purse.

Taylor, Smith & and their friend Troy Purdie II, who was also at the scene, were taken in for questioning. Their stories matched, but investigators thought they were lying. They didn’t believe that a robber would go after Kristie with three others right by her. The fact that nothing was missing from the purse also raised red flags.

Detectives put more pressure on them. Taylor cracked first saying that Purdie was talking about killing Kristie and did it because she was racist.

Purdie folded next. He shut down the racist theory and said Taylor planned to inherit money with her mother gone and offered him $5,000 of it to kill Kristie.

Smith folded next, and all three were charged with murder.

The evidence continued to pile up, including a video of Purdy stabbing Kristie while Taylor stood by watching.

The death penalty was on the table, but they all pleaded guilty, and they all got life without parole sentences.

Life in prison

Taylor has done interviews over the years, minimizing her involvement. On the show Snapped Behind Bars she stated, “I want people to know the truth and not just think that I’m the mastermind behind it because I wasn’t.”

She also said, “It really wasn’t intentional. I really didn’t mean for this to happen, and I really didn’t want anything bad to happen to my mom.”

She further claimed she was screaming at Purdie to stop while he was stabbing her mother.

The now 36-year-old remains locked up at Ohio Reformatory for Women.