Convicted in Texas murder, Erie man awaits return to face charges in girlfriend's killing
An Erie man fled the city sometime after police said he shot his girlfriend in her Hess Avenue apartment on the early morning of Nov. 18, 2018, resulting in her death two days later.
Selena Wall's accused killer, Marcus A. Gibbs, resurfaced in Texas the following summer, when authorities there accused him of shooting the son of another girlfriend.
Gibbs, 35, was convicted at trial in Austin, Texas, last week in the death of the girlfriend's son, 22-year-old Alexander J. Morgan Jr.
Erie police and Erie County prosecutors are now awaiting the opportunity to bring Gibbs back to Erie.
More:Man charged with homicide in shooting
Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said her office is taking steps to have Gibbs brought back to Erie so he can be arraigned on charges including first-degree murder and criminal homicide in Wall's death. Erie police filed those charges on Nov. 21, 2018, three days after Walls was shot and a day after she died of her wounds.
It was unknown Thursday when Gibbs might return to Erie.
Deadly confrontation in Hess Avenue apartment
Wall, 32, was shot multiple times and was found in a third-floor bedroom of the apartment house in the 900 block of Hess Avenue where she lived when officers were called there at about 4 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2018. According to police, Wall stated to officers that Gibbs, whom she described as her boyfriend, had shot her.
Another person who was inside the apartment at the time of the shooting also identified Gibbs as the suspect, detectives said.
Wall, the mother of one son, died on Nov. 20, 2018, while undergoing treatment at UPMC Hamot. She died of multiple gunshot wounds, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook reported following autopsy.
Gibbs was initially charged with offenses including aggravated assault following the shooting. Police withdrew those charges and added the homicide and murder counts following Wall's death.
More:Deadly trend
Hunt for suspect and new killing
Authorities including the U.S. Marshals Service spent months trying to find and apprehend Gibbs following the shooting. Their efforts included following up on a tip that Gibbs might have been seen in Florida.
The search ended in July 2019, when police in Austin, Texas, announced that Gibbs was wanted as a suspect in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Alex J. Morgan Jr. in East Austin.
More:Erie homicide suspect sought in Texas
Gibbs was quickly apprehended and was jailed in the Austin shooting and on the Erie homicide warrant.
Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny told the Erie Times-News following Gibbs' apprehension that his department's representative on the U.S. Marshals Western Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force had received information that Gibbs might be in Texas, and the officer forwarded it to authorities in Texas. Spizarny said the U.S. Marshals in Texas were following up on the lead when Morgan was shot.
Gibbs was indicted in October 2019 in Travis County, Texas, for the offense of murder in Morgan's death, according to the Travis County District Attorney's Office.
More:Marcus Gibbs fatally shot his girlfriend's son in front of her. Now he's convicted of murder.
A jury in Travis County, Texas, found Gibbs guilty of one count of murder on Feb. 3 in Morgan's death following a trial that opened on Jan. 24. Gibbs was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to prosecutors and court officials in Travis County.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie man wanted in 2018 killing convicted of homicide in Texas case
