Death on the Stuart Highway – the killing of Ron Marks

Memorial for Ron Marks north of Coober Pedy

I’ve written about Australian roadside memorial markers recently here. There is an almost infinite variety of these memorials – some are just a cross with no name, date or details. Other sites are more elaborate, with all the appurtenances of a regular grave-site – the plastic flowers, cans and bottles of beer of spirits and a scatter of items of significance to the deceased or those that remain to remember. Some are carefully and regularly tended, others look like they’ve not been visited since they were established.

You can read more about roadside memorials and follow links to a wonderful body of research by Dr Jenny Clark and Professor Majella Franzmann from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW at the ABC’s Religion & Ethics website.

I came across this memorial to Ron Marks about 90 kilometres or so north of Coober Pedy in South Australia’s north when I passed through there early in July.

What struck me was that this was the first of the many hundreds of roadside memorials that I’ve seen over the years – and particularly over the past few months while I’ve been spinning my wheels down backroads across the country doing research for my book on  Aboriginal bird knowledge – that concerned a death by misadventure other than a motor-vehicle accident.

This sign reached out and grabbed me as I drove past – there was something about it that demanded my further attention – its size, the distance from the road – I don’t know. The force of the few words on this sign remain a shock – “Murdered at this spot – 16-9-93.” I stopped and wandered around the area for a few minutes but it was more than a little spooky and I soon hit the road southward for the Coober after taking a few photos and looking around at the rather desolate landscape.

That night I sat in a mouldering caravan in Coober Pedy and looked on the web to find a bit more about what happened to Ron Marks on that lonely stretch of road. Eventually I found two reports from the Courts of Appeal in South Australia and after a little more digging and a few week’s wait I got a reply from the staff at the Criminal Registry of the Supreme Court of South Australia that answered – at least in part – a few of my questions.

Most murders are pretty straightforward to solve – family members kill their own, drug dealers kill other drug dealers – and are solved within the first 48 hours.  And so it was with the unlawful killing of Ron Marks.

On the day that he was killed, Ron Marks was driving a Commodore station wagon northwards to Alice Springs from Clare in South Australia where he had been on holiday. Unknown to him, travelling on the road ahead of him were Dale Francis Harris and his girlfriend, Alison Spendlove.

About 96 km north of Coober Pedy Harris had fallen asleep and run off the road – wrecking his car in the process. Harris had taken a number of tablets the hynotic benzodiazepine Rohypnol that day and previously and had smoked ganja after his accident. Alison Spendlove caught a lift back to Coober Pedy soon after that accident.

Later that night Harris turned up in Coober Pedy. He was driving Ron Marks’ Commodore, wearing his jumper and shoes and was covered in blood from a wound to the back of his neck. Staff at the roadhouse where Harris stopped soon alerted police and two general duties officers attended.

What happened between the time that Ronnie Marks pulled up on the side of the road outside Coober Pedy and when Harris turned up back in Coober Pedy later that night can only be reconstructed from Harris’ confused tales to the police and the evidence on the side of the road. Apparently Ronnie Marks and Harris had some sort of altercation that ended up with Ronnie Mark’s body dumped in a culvert on the side of the Stuart Highway.

Harris was found guilty of the murder of Ron Marks on 25 November 1994 and appealed that decision two weeks later. That appeal was allowed in March 1995 and a re-trial was ordered. Harris was re-arraigned, pleading not-guilty early the next month, and a second trial was held over ten days in late September 1995. At that trial Harris was acquitted of murder he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter by majority verdict of the jury.

Harris again appealed that verdict. At sentencing Harris was given a non-parole sentence of 8 years and 6 months, with a ‘head’ sentence of 11 years and 2 months. His second appeal was dismissed in June 1996 and the sentence stood.

I haven’t been able to locate any sentencing remarks from the judge in either of Harris’ trials and when next I’m in Adelaide I’ll wander along to the Supreme Court Registry and see if I can get copies of them from the Court archives.

What follows is from the decision of Justice Millhouse in Harris’ first appeal to the 3 member Court of Criminal Appeal of the South Australian Supreme Court in February and March 1995.

On 16 September 1993 he [Harris] and his girlfriend, Alison Spendlove, were driving from Kimba up to Alice Springs. When they were 97 kilometres north of Coober Pedy the appellant, having dozed off, allowed the vehicle to go to the right off the road. The vehicle was so badly damaged as to be undriveable.

Miss Spendlove got a lift back to Coober Pedy. The appellant stayed near the wreck. During the afternoon he was seen by several passers by. He seemed alright: they noticed no injuries on him.

The deceased Mr Ronald Lawrence Marks, was also driving to Alice Springs on that day. He was going home from Clare.

Just what happened when he stopped to speak to the appellant is not known for sure. The appellant gave evidence at trial that when he offered Mr Marks cannabis, Mr Marks became abusive, a row turned into a fight in which the appellant stabbed Mr Marks eleven times, once with a pair of scissors and the remainder with a knife. However the medical evidence suggests that only a knife was used. One at least of the stabs was fatal: Mr Marks died.

The appellant himself sustained injuries to the neck. Later when he was back in Coober Pedy he was seen covered in blood. His account gave rise to the defence of self defence: that he killed Mr Marks in the course of defending himself from Mr Marks’ attacks. I should say that the appellant was at the time a man of twenty-three. Mr Marks was forty-two. Whatever caused Mr Marks’ death, apparently the accused dragged his body some distance and hid it in a culvert. The appellant then drove in Mr Marks’ vehicle back to Coober Pedy wearing a pair of Mr Marks’ shoes and his jumper.

He was back there between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening and started looking for Miss Spendlove. A shop keeper, struck by his appearance, called the police.

They came and asked him what had happened.

In the next few hours the appellant told many different stories, most of which the police, upon checking, quickly found to be false. Police suspicions deepened. Eventually before the end of the evening the appellant was charged with illegal use and giving a false name and address. That was before Mr Marks’ body had been found.

During the course of the evening the appellant twice went to the hospital accompanied by police. He drove himself there the first time in Mr Marks’ vehicle. He became impatient and would not wait for the doctor to treat him. He discharged himself but the police would not let him drive back to the police station. They have given two reasons – first that the nurse had expressed the view that the appellant should not drive for long distances in his condition (he had said he had to get on to Alice Springs) and secondly the police were becoming more and more suspicious.

…

Eventually about 11 o’clock the police had a formal interview with him about the vehicle. He continued to tell lies about how he came by it. In the course of the interview police suspicions hardened (a bill of sale was found in the glove box bearing no name which the appellant had used) and the appellant was cautioned. He continued thereafter to answer questions. After the interview he was arrested, charged and put in the cells.

The next morning, the body of the unfortunate Mr Marks having been discovered, the police had another interview with the appellant.

I’m sure there is a lot more to find out about the unfortunate death of Ron Marks and all that flows from those few minutes of violence on the side of a south Australian highway.

Hopefully the sentencing remarks from Harris’ trials may give me a few more clues. And maybe his family and friends in Alice Springs might have something more to say about the death of Ron Marks.