Man who drove body to lawyer’s office appears in court

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Only WINK News was in the courtroom as John Marshall appeared before a judge for the first time since he admitted to killing a man in one of the most bizarre cases in recent memory.

However, Monday’s court hearing was for a separate aggravated battery case. Marshall is accused of hitting and injuring a man in a Cape Coral McDonald’s parking lot last September and driving off.

“We’re still going through (that case) right now, we’re still doing an investigation, we don’t know exactly what the facts are at this point and we’re still working through them,” Marshall’s attorney Robert Harris told WINK.

A plea deal was originally on the table for the aggravated battery, but the state revoked it due to recent events.

Marshall gained national attention in March when he drove 26 miles from Bokeelia to Harris’ office in downtown Fort Myers with a dead man’s body in his truck. According to Harris, Marshall claimed that his neighbor Ted Hubbell pulled a gun on him during a dispute over property. Harris says there was a scuffle for the gun and that Marshal shot Hubbell in self defense.

“He’s not doing very well… I think he’s still feeling the effects of what happened that fateful night,” said Harris.

Deputies questioned Marshall for hours, but never arrested him. More than a month later, Marshall has not been charged,

“I think the fact that they’ve taken this long tells me that what they’ve found is consistent with what we claim, that it’s self defense,” said Harris.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office would not comment because it remains an active investigation.

Marshall is due back in court for the McDonald’s aggravated battery charge on May 5.