A mother has been accused of killing her six-year-old son with a toxic cocktail of drugs hoping to cash in on an insurance payout for his death.
Ashley Marks, 25, from Houston, Texas, has been charged with murder after allegedly causing her son to overdose on cocaine, methamphetamine and other over-the-counter drugs, just one month after taking out two life insurance policies for the schoolboy, according to prosecutors.
Jason Sanchez-Marks died in June 2020 and an autopsy found toxic amounts of multiple over-the-counter medications in Jason’s system as well as exposure to meth and cocaine.
He sadly died just a few weeks before his seventh birthday, and prosecutors believe his mother, Marks, intentionally drugged him to death in order to collect insurance money, reports WMC 5 Action News.
Gilbert Sawtelle, chief child fatality prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said Jason and his sister, aged four, had been living with his grandfather in Tanglewood, Texas, and allege that Marks would show up at the home nightly to drug her son.
In a report, Child Protective Services said that the grandfather had ‘repeatedly contacted the mother over a two-day period notifying her that the 6-year old child was ill (projectile vomiting, hallucinating, unable to sleep), but neither the mother nor grandfather sought medical attention for the 6-year old as the child’s condition worsened’. Sawtelle said:
‘We believe it’s her scheme to have her son die in her father’s care.’ He added that Marks took out two life insurance policies on her son approximately, totaling $100,000.
Investigators say Marks initially lied about the policies, telling them she knew nothing about insurance and thought the deals were savings plans.
However, detectives later learned she is a licensed insurance agent in Texas, specializing in life insurance.
That was a big clue that this was not an accidental death’, Sawtelle added. Jason’s father, Mario Sanchez, who is working with police, has said Marks tried to get him to sign paperwork on an insurance policy, but he refused.
Speaking of his son’s tragic death, Sanchez, who divorced Marks two years ago, said losing Jason feels like ‘a bad dream’. Marks is charged with capital murder in connection to Jason’s death.
She was denied bail during a hearing Thursday
metro
