A 25-year-old woman accused of starving her two children in 2023, killing one of them, has been extradited from North Texas to El Paso County to face a capital murder charge. Glenda Marks was located and taken into custody in Montague County, Texas, before Fugitive Apprehension Unit deputies transported her back to El Paso, where she was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility on a combined bond of $1.6 million.
Marks was indicted on one count of capital murder involving a person under 10 years old, one count of murder, and four counts of injury to a child, elderly or disabled individual, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. The case involves allegations that Marks starved her two children, resulting in the starvation death of one of them in 2023.
A Fugitive Hunt That Stretched Across Texas
Montague County, where marshals located and arrested Marks, sits in North Texas along the Oklahoma border, more than 600 miles northeast of El Paso County, per the same account from The Daily News Now. Closing that kind of distance required the U.S. Marshals Service Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, which pools federal, state, and local law enforcement resources across the state to track and apprehend violent fugitives who cross jurisdictional boundaries, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
Once Marks was in custody, Fugitive Apprehension Unit deputies transported her back to El Paso, where she was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility. Sheriff Oscar Ugarte said the arrest demonstrates the importance of strong partnerships among local, state, and federal agencies. Local, state, and federal agencies will continue to work together and share resources to locate people wanted for serious offenses and return them to El Paso County to face justice, per the sheriff's office.
What Texas Law Says About the Charges Marks Faces
The capital murder count against Marks carries the heaviest weight the Texas penal code allows. Under Texas Penal Code § 19.03(a)(8), the intentional or knowing murder of an individual under 6 years of age is classified as a capital felony, punishable exclusively by lethal injection or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to the L&L Law Group.
The four additional injury to a child counts carry their own severe exposure. Under Texas Penal Code § 22.04, intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury or mental impairment to a child 14 years old or younger is a first-degree felony carrying a prison term of 5 to 99 years or life, the L&L Law Group notes. Notably, the statute does not require active physical trauma to apply: Texas Penal Code § 22.04(b) establishes criminal liability for omissions, making it a felony for a parent or legal guardian with a statutory duty of care to fail to provide necessary food or medical attention to a child, according to the BHW Law Firm.
A Broader Push to Expand Child Capital Murder Protections
Marks' case also lands amid a legislative debate over how Texas defines capital murder involving children. Texas lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 990 during the 89th Legislative Session to propose raising the capital murder age threshold for child victims under Penal Code § 19.03(a) from under 10 years old to under 15 years old, according to Texas Policy Research.
El Paso County has seen several capital murder cases move through its courts in recent months. In February, Mario Lechuga Velazquez was convicted and received a mandatory life sentence without parole for a 2023 fatal shooting, in a case covered by Hoodline. Marks now joins that docket, held on bond pending further proceedings in her case.
