West Michigan soldier may face more charges

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - There is new information about the mental state of a West Michigan soldier accused of a brutal rape and murder.

New reports point to signs of mental illness, but did the military overlook those signs and send him to Iraq anyway?

Robert Marko was born and raised in Decatur, and is now charged with murdering and raping 19-year-old Judi Lawrence near his military base at Fort Carson, Colorado. The crime occurred in October, after Marko's return from Iraq.

A new report is now raising questions about whether Marko should have been cleared to serve.

The death of Judi Lawrence prompted Colorado Senator Ken Salazar to call for an investigation into murders that had occurred involving soldiers from Fort Carson, where Marko was stationed.

Now Marko could be facing even more charges.

On the internet, Marko wrote out his sometimes dark thoughts.

"I'm becoming a cold hearted killer and kill without mercy or reason," Marko wrote.

Now it seems the former soldier may have lived out those thoughts. Marko is accused of killing one woman and attacking two others in the area around Fort Carson.

In October, an affidavit from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office described what Marko did to 19-year-old Judilianna Lawrence.

"Mr. Marko siad he had sex with the victim next to his vehicle, after having sex Marko said he got into another argument with the victim. At this point, he gagged and blindfolded her, after this he cut her throat," the affidavit stated.

Since then a 14-year-old girl has come forward saying that Marko attacked her, and another woman says Marko attacked her in his barracks room.

What led Marko to these acts is a mystery, but documents obtained by the New York Times raise questions about Marko's mental state, saying that he was diagnosed with Tourette's and Schizo-typal personality disorder, serious conditions that a psychiatrist defined for us.

"It's a personality disorder where the person is manifesting symptoms to what we see in psychotic disorder but it's not really a psychosis, it's just a bid odd and outside of the usual, what we'd consider normal," said Michael Liepman, M.D. "It's kind of chronic, it's not something that comes on acutely."

On his web page, Marko also professed his belief that he would turn into an alter-ego known as Black Raptor.

Despite all this, military reports say Marko was cleared to serve, and that he had no record of violence or bad conduct. But the issues surrounding Marko prompted Senator Salazar to write a letter to the army, concerned over Marko's confessing to the killing of Judi Lawrence and wondering whether enough was being done for the mental health of soldiers.

He repeated those concerns in a statement to Newschannel 3.

"Tragedies also raise a number of questions with respect to the backgrounds and service records of those soldiers involved," Senator Salazar said, "including what kind of waivers they may have received to enter the army, and whether the army provided them with adequate mental health screening and treatment."

Marko is one of many soldiers from Fort Carson that have been accused or convicted of murder in the past two years.