warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On the morning of August 9th, 2019 44 year-old wife and mother, Marcia Thompson, shot and killed her husband of over a decade while he rested leisurely on the couch in their living room.
After calling for paramedics and police, Marcia placed her gun in a safe location and surrendered herself to law enforcement. Not once did Marcia deny what she had done.
yet as details emerged what first appeared to be a case of cold- blooded murder began to look like it could be anything but…
today’s case may be divisive amongst our audience, this is the story of a father of two young children who lost his life abruptly and the wife that believed she did what she had to.
it was around 1:00 a.m. on the morning of august 9th 2019 marcia thompson was on the phone with her husband terry who was on his way home. the couple’s two children aged 6 and 7 were asleep in the other room.
terry wanted his wife to keep him company while he drove through the night.because of this, marcia had managed only a few hours of sleep.
she was due to start her shift as a customs agent at the port of palm beach at 7 : a.m.
when terry finally arrived an hour later,he was in a foul mood. the couple had began to argue over the phone and had done so for hours.mostly over marital problems.
terry brought his hostility home with him. the argument continued in person until rouyghly 6: 00 a. m . when marcia began preparing to leave for work.
what transpired over the next few minutes would forever change the lives of the thompson family.only marcia can know what exactly took place.
and she would later tell a detective that much of it was a blur. she just didn’t remember the details but at 6 :10 a.m. she placed a call to 911.
while preparing for work marcia had changed into her customs in border control uniform complete with her service weapon. it was this gun that she had used to shoot her husband.
emergency dispatch requested that she the firearm aside before deputies arrived on scene.
marcia placed the gun on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen.she told the operator that she had shot terry an undetermined number of times in both the front and back.
from where he lay on the living room floor he was gasping,marcia observed him from the safety of the kitchen.she would not approach him.
as deputies arrived at the house , a uniformed marcia thompson emerged from the front door. she was not crying or frantic .there were no signs of visible injuuries. she was immediately placed into custoy.
marcia sat staring out at the scene. EMTs and other emergency responders took over the street.when spoken to during this time marcia only asked after her children.
ensuring a family member was contacted to care for them,neither child had witnessed what had occured inside the house.
entering the scene EMTs found 52 year old terry thompson face down on the living room floor near to the couch.he was declared dead upon their arrival.
marcia was questined by detectives on scene, her uniform confiscated as evidence.
she told detectives that in the 15 minutes prior to the shooting she had been in her bedroom preparing to leave for work.
she recalled getting ready, terry berating her from the living room angry with his wife for various reasons.
she was not good enough, he was saying. she explained that her husband had been abusive for years.
that morning and throughout the night.
he had been threatening to kill her. she said.when deputies asked why she hadn’t called 911 when her husband the initial threats . she said tshe was scared and thought her cell phone might have been in the living room.
however when deputies arrived on scene, they saw marcia’s cell phone was still clipped to her duty belt. she subsequently dropped it outside the house.
it was the same phone she had used to call 911.
as marcia sat in the back of the deputy’s cruiser, detectives and later crime scene technicians descended upon the house to gather evidence and to verify or disprove her story.
from his position on the living room floor.it was clear that terry had fallen from an outstretched position on the couch. next to him was a blanket a pillow and a laptop.it seems he had been lying in his underwear on his back with his feet propped up.he was covered by the blanket the computer rested on his lap.
terry had been shot a total of nine times.the first two had been delivered to his front on his chest.
at that time he had raised his left arm. effectively blocking a third shot from also reaching his midsection.the gun was fired six more times as terry fell from the couch.
not a single bullet missed its target.crucially,all six of these shots were delivered to terry’s back after he fell to the floor.
deputies found nine 40 caliber shell casings along the wall.
a bullet resistant vest in a carrier was draped over the opposit end of the couch.
detectives search the area immediately surrounding terry’s body looking for a weapon.
they tossed the cushions and moved th furniture,then they speculated that perhaps a gun would be found underneath him .but that theory was put to rest when terry was eventually moved to reveal that the oly items he had fallen on were his cell phone and laptop.
law enforcement did locate potential weapons in the house.a second gun was locked away in a safe. there was a machete in the bedroom ,a golfclub rested near to the couch.
but there were no potenial weapons witihin arms reach of the 52 year old when he was killed in
earlier in the evening …
during there argument terry had thrown a remote control at marcia she said
deputies did not find a device out of place.based on these facts at the scene.detectives concluded that marcia’s claim of self-defense was bogus.
she was arrested under suspicion of first -degree murder.
44 year old marcia thompson met her future husband at the university of florida in 2000
back then she found him to be confident and charming,the two were friends at first and eventually began dating.
marcia never haad a serious boyfriend before terry.
their relationship was longdistance for a number of years marcia trained as a customs agent and used all of her available free time to visit terry.
in 2007 the couple were engaged.
throughout this period however terry’s behavior became increasingly controlling.he began to dictate what she wore,where she worked, who she saw.
over the years, his complaints about his wife developed into a theme.
that marcia was not good enough,she was a poor mother, a bad wife.her hair was wrong and so was her clothes.she couldn’t make him happy.
terry’s abuse turned physical around the same time they became engaged.
he accused marcia of cheating on him and violently attacked her. this insident in terry’s behavior came as a shock to marcia at that time.
though it would later become commonplace in their relationship, he would apologize and make promises to never act out again in this way.
marcia would forgive him every time.
aside from brief periods during and immediately after her pregnancies. the violent episodes were constant. the couple were married in august 2008.she killed him just over 10 years later.
marcia was released on bond.fixed with an ankle monitor and placed under house arrest.
in the years that followed marcia’s defense team had tried and failed to have the charges dropped based upon florida’s stander grounds laws.
they would however maintain that marsia was acting in self-defense. they argued that she was suffering from both battered spous syndrome and post- traumatic stress at the time of the shooting.
when the case went to trial in the summer of 2024.prosecutors conceded that years of physical and sexual violence predated the shooting.
the question for jurors,was marcia thompson’s state of mind when she killed her husband.
they argued that the crime scene proved premeditation.
the history of abuse in the relationship on which the defense’s case rested was in fact according to the prosecution an indicator that marcia thompson knew exactly what she was doing.
years of suffering injuries at the hands of her husband gave her a uniquely qualified view of what imminent danger looks like.
they argued, and that morning no such danger existed.
terry had sent marcia to the hospital more than once. her life had been threatened at other points in time and she had not killed him.indeed she had never fought back.
to the state, this meant that on the morning of august 9th. marcia was not fearful for her life.but was simply fed up .
she was sleep-deprived. angry and exhausted from arguing and her huspand continued to insult her. florida’s self- defense law permits the use of lethal force in response to an immediate threat to life.
but they maintained that in this case.there was none.
defense council jessica mishali. also argued that the years living with terry thompson had made marcia adept at sensing when she was in physical danger from him.
and that is how she knew with complete certainty from the moment he returned home that night that sh was in serious danger.
the state’s key witness was daniel steelman. a crime scene reconstructionist from baldwin county in alabama.
steelman had been called in by palm beach detectives to offer his expert analysis.
he told jurors , that based upon an examination of the blood stain spatter and ballistics.there was no evidence that terry even stood up before he was shot nine times.
he said there was also no evidence that there was a weapon anywhere near him.
of the physical abuse there were no documented instances in the time period leading up to his death.this fact was meant to demonstrate that no escalation had taken place before the shooting.
it was business as usual. in the thompson household.
marcia had no physical injuries. when deputies responded , verbal assaults on marcia had been nearly constant . on this point . they conceded. but there was no evidence of an escalation.
and you cannot kill your husband because he insults you.
jessica mishali called upon forensic psychologist michael brannon to testify that a battered woman’s experiences affect her perception of imminent danger.
the doctor testified that it was unwise to place too much consideration on whether terry was actually armed.what mattered was whether marcia believed that he was.
she stated that terry had kept a gun in the closet.
a golf club in the livingroom a machete by the bed and knives hidden throughout the house.sometimes in between the couch cushions where he lay the morning he died.
she had reason to believe that he had access to one of these knives that morning.
in the period leading up to his death.terry had began to use this weapons as part of his threats towarda her. he had also reportedly stated on more then one occasion that knives were so well hidden throughout the home that she would never be able to find them all.
it seems that despite terry’s routine accusations of his wife’s infidelity. he was the one frequently stepping out of the mariage.
outside of the jury’s presence teresa benton- a former girlfriend to terry’s testified to the final encounter she had with him.
the two had been arguing. he was coming at her .so she reached for a kitchen knife.having discovered that he was married. she had also dialed marcia thompson on her cell phone.
teresa connected only to marcia’s voicemail but kept up the rus that she was communicating on the other end as she continued to defend herself.
terry’s ex -wife melissa was also prepared to testify for the defense.however this line of questioning was deemed inadmissible as evidence at trial.
the defense instead called before the jury multiple friends and family members of marcia’s who had witnessed terry’s behavior towards his wife firsthand.
indeed family members had also been on ther receiving end of his threats.
her grandmother told of a time . she prayed . after terry called her to say her granddaughter was sleeping with co- workers and then threatened to kill her family.
marcia’ s brother testified. to a phone call from terry. upset about her not being a good wife that ended again with a threat to kill the entire family.
marcia thompson chose to tell her story directly to the jury.
over two days, she explained how she became entangled in a relationship with an older man. how controlled her every move.terry’s behavior became more physical in the last 5 years.
the frequency and intensity of the attacks peaked in the 12 months prior to the shooting.
when asked why she didn’t leave him , a tearful marcia told jurors she did not believe she could end the relationship and survive.
dr brenan had testified that women who leave their abusers are at a greater risk of violence than those who stay.that morning she tried as she always did.to calm him down.
after threats were made towards her children.marcia began to regularly collect them from school and bring them into work with her to ensure they would not be left alone with her husband.
that morning,she tried to get a co-worker to take over her 7 a.m shift but received no answer to her call.sh feared leaving her children to go to work.
during prosecutor’s closing statements assistant state attorney karen black emphasized the premeditated element of the first -degree murder charge.
marcia spent a full 15 minutes in her room. getting ready for work.listening to her husband beraid her from the living room before she rejoined him there and shot him to death.
they argued she had ample time to calm him down and respond reasonably and instead chose to murder terry.
the defense characteriz those 15 minutes differently.it was a period of increasing panic.
of worry for her children. 15 minutes spent knwoing for a certainty that there were no good options but that eventually she needed to leave that room.
the trial lasted 6 days. it was tense in the courtroom. when the jury returned with their verdict.
over 5 years while the trial was pending . marcia’s two children had lived separately from their mother.she was restricted by the conditions of her bond.
following the verdict,the family was able to reunite under the same roof.over those many years prosecutors had never offered a plea deal.
marcia later spoke publicly. stating that adjusting after the ordeal was tricky.
but that her children were pleased to have her back.everyone is doing well and in therapy.