Bio

Mark Anthony Gill was reportedly born on November 15, 1970. He was 31 years old when Ralph Lee Lape Jr. was murdered in July 2002. Reports from the later resentencing identified him as a former Cape Girardeau resident. By the summer of 2002, Gill lacked stable housing and was staying in a camper trailer on Lape’s rural property. Lape had permitted him to live there as a favor to a mutual friend. Justin Brown was also spending time at the property during the Fourth of July weekend.

Gill had a girlfriend at the time of the crime. After Lape’s murder, Gill travelled with her to Las Vegas, where they married. During the trip, he continued withdrawing money from Lape’s account. The published court opinion does not identify the woman by name or indicate that she participated in the murder plan.

Murder Story

During the Fourth of July weekend in 2002, Ralph Lee Lape Jr. travelled to Kentucky Lake while Gill and Justin Brown remained at his rural Cape Girardeau County property. Brown searched Lape’s personal papers and learned that he had a large amount of money in his bank accounts. Gill and Brown decided to kill him and take the money. On July 6, they obtained a .22-caliber pistol from Lape’s home, purchased duct tape and decided to ambush him inside the garage, where they would be hidden from public view.

Lape returned at approximately 5:30 p.m. on July 7. Gill and Brown waited in the garage and opened the door as his pickup approached. When Lape stepped out, they grabbed him. Gill told him that they wanted his money. Lape offered to give them what they wanted and reminded Gill that he had only tried to help him, but the two men continued with the plan. They restrained Lape with plastic ties and duct tape and forced him behind the rear seat of his truck.

Gill and Brown found approximately $240 in a plastic bag and divided it. Gill placed shovels in the truck because he understood that they intended to kill and bury Lape. Gill drove south on Interstate 55 while Brown held Lape down on the floorboard. After finding Lape’s ATM card, Gill demanded its personal identification number, which Lape immediately provided.

They drove approximately 80 miles to an isolated cornfield near Portageville in New Madrid County. Gill and Brown took turns flattening corn and digging a grave while the other remained with Lape in the truck. Once the hole was ready, they removed Lape’s restraints, took him from the vehicle and pushed him into the grave despite his requests to be spared.

One of the men pointed the .22-caliber pistol at Lape and pulled the trigger, but the weapon misfired. It misfired a second time. On the third attempt, the gun discharged and a bullet entered Lape’s forehead, killing him. Both Gill and Brown later claimed that the other man had fired the shot, and investigators were unable to determine conclusively which one had pulled the trigger. Their shared planning and participation made each legally responsible for the murder.

After the shooting, the men positioned Lape’s body inside the grave and removed his clothing and jewelry. Brown stepped on Lape’s head to force his body into the hole. They then covered the grave. The autopsy later showed that Lape had also been beaten, suffering a fractured skull, multiple head injuries, chest bruising and a broken rib before he was killed.

Gill and Brown returned to Lape’s property, changed clothes and began using his ATM card. They travelled to St. Louis, made several withdrawals and spent nearly $1,000 at strip clubs before staying at the Adam’s Mark hotel. They continued withdrawing money while returning to Lape’s home.

The two men attempted to destroy evidence by burning their clothing and the clothing removed from Lape’s body. They abandoned the shovels in a wooded area and threw the pistol, Lape’s jewelry and other objects into the Mississippi River. They drove Lape’s pickup to Paducah, Kentucky, left it in a hospital parking lot and returned to the property. When Lape’s relatives asked where he was, they falsely claimed that he was still at Kentucky Lake.

After nearly exhausting the money immediately available through the ATM card, Gill and Brown used Lape’s computer to transfer $55,000 from another bank account into an ATM-accessible account. Gill later travelled with his girlfriend to Las Vegas, where they married. He withdrew approximately $1,600 of Lape’s money during the trip.

Gill was arrested in New Mexico approximately three weeks after the killing. He initially denied involvement in Lape’s disappearance and claimed that he had permission to use the ATM card. He later confessed to planning and participating in the kidnapping and murder but maintained that Brown was the shooter. Brown also confessed but blamed Gill for firing the fatal shot.

A New Madrid County jury convicted Gill in 2004 of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, kidnapping, first-degree robbery and first-degree tampering. He received death for the murder, life imprisonment for robbery and consecutive terms of 30 years for armed criminal action, 15 years for kidnapping and seven years for tampering.

Gill appealed, arguing in part that there was insufficient evidence identifying him as the shooter. On July 12, 2005, the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences. The court held that his admitted role in planning the murder, binding and abducting Lape, driving him to the field, digging the grave and remaining at the scene made him equally responsible regardless of who fired the weapon.

Gill later sought post-conviction relief. During the original penalty phase, prosecutors had presented family testimony describing Lape’s generosity and good character. Gill’s attorneys had access to a report concerning Lape’s computer but failed to investigate files containing sexually explicit material. The Missouri Supreme Court concluded that competent counsel could have used that material either to discourage prosecutors from introducing positive character evidence or to rebut it before the jury.

On December 1, 2009, the court upheld Gill’s convictions but reversed the penalty-phase ruling because of ineffective assistance of counsel. The decision removed the existing death sentence and required a new sentencing proceeding. It did not question Gill’s legal responsibility for Lape’s murder.

The new penalty-phase trial was eventually held in Boone County in May 2017. After a two-week proceeding, the jury selected life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on May 20. The result permanently removed Gill from Missouri’s death row while leaving his murder conviction and additional prison sentences intact.

Justin Brown was separately convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 2006. Prosecutors also sought death in his case, but his jury imposed life imprisonment without parole. Brown received life-without-parole sentences on both charges.