Marco Montez was sentenced to death by the State of Oregon for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Marco Montez and Timothy Aikens sexually assaulted and murdered the victim Candace Straub in a Portland motel room in 1987. The woman was strangled using bed sheets before being set on fire. Timothy Aikens was sentenced to life, Marco Montez was sentenced to death
Marco Montez 2021 Information
| Offender Name: | Montez, Marco A |
| Age: | 58 |  | DOB: | 04/1962 |  | Location: | Two Rivers Correctional Institution |
| Gender: | Male | | Race: | Hispanic Or Latin American | | Status: | AIC |
| Height: | 5′ 08” | | Hair: | Black | | Field Admission Date: | 11/19/1986 |
| Weight: | 245 lbs | | Eyes: | Brown | | Earliest Release Date: | Death |
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Montez and Timothy Aikens beat, raped and sodomized Candace Straub in a Portland motel room in 1987. They then strangled her with a bed sheet and set her body on fire. Montez was later arrested in Idaho. Aikens is serving a life sentence.
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On June 20, 1987, Candice Straub, accompanied by two men, rented a room at the Continental Motel in Portland. The next day, firefighters responding to a fire at the motel discovered Straub’s nude and bound body on a bed in one of the motel’s rooms. Her body had been doused with flammable liquid and set afire. It was determined later that she had been strangled to death.
A few weeks later, defendant Marco Montez told Annie Edmo, a woman with whom he had been living in Pocatello, Idaho, that he had helped get rid of the body of a woman in Portland after Tim Aikens, the co-defendant in this case, had strangled her. Edmo reported that statement to the Pocatello police. Defendant was arrested in Pocatello on July 12 on unrelated Idaho charges. The Pocatello police notified the Portland police of his arrest and of Edmo’s report.
Portland Detective Goodale flew to Pocatello to interview defendant. On July 15, after introducing himself to defendant, Goodale handed defendant a constitutional rights (Miranda) advice form, which defendant read. Goodale then read the form to defendant, stopping after each of the four individual Miranda rights, to ask defendant if he understood. Defendant responded that he did, and he initialed the form beside each right as Goodale read it to him. Defendant stated that he understood his rights and that he would speak to Goodale. He signed the advice of rights form. Defendant does not dispute that he was advised of, understood, and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights before talking to Goodale for the first time on July 15.
In response to Goodale’s questions, defendant at first denied any involvement in Straub’s murder. He stated that he had met Aikens in Portland and that they had worked together for a day at a cannery. Aikens had met Straub at the cannery, and she had accompanied Aikens and defendant to a drop-in center in Portland when they returned from work. After sleeping for a few hours, the three went to breakfast and to a second hand store before separating. Aikens and Straub went to the Continental Motel; and defendant went to a park, where he remained until Aikens contacted him later. At that time, Aikens told defendant that he had left Straub at the motel and that he wanted to show defendant something there. Defendant, however, declined to go to the motel. Aikens then said *1357 that he had a “problem,” after which defendant and Aikens then made plans to leave town.
Goodale asked if Aikens had explained the nature of his “problem.” Defendant replied, “I think I need a lawyer to talk about the rest of it so I don’t get linked up.” Goodale asked defendant if “he was telling us that he wanted an attorney and did not want to talk with us anymore.” Defendant’s reply was no. Goodale again advised defendant that he had the right to have a lawyer and to have his lawyer present at any time during the questioning. He asked defendant “if that’s what he wanted?” Defendant replied that “that was not what he wanted.” Goodale asked defendant if he was “still willing to talk with us?” According to Goodale, defendant replied, “I will talk to you without one.”
In response to further questions by Goodale, defendant admitted that he had gone to the motel, where Aikens had showed him Straub’s dead body in the bathtub. Aikens told defendant that Straub had refused to have sex with him, that he had hit her, and that she had fallen and hit her head. Defendant stated that he had then left the motel. Defendant stated that Aikens had later admitted setting the motel room afire. Defendant at first denied involvement in the fire, but he later admitted that he had helped Aikens move Straub’s body from the bathtub to a bed and had participated in setting the motel room afire. Defendant admitted that it had been his plan to burn the room, but he still denied killing Straub or having sexual relations with her.
Defendant voluntarily submitted to polygraph tests on July 16 and 17. When the polygrapher told defendant that the tests indicated deception, defendant told the polygrapher that he did not want to talk to him anymore, and the polygrapher turned defendant back over to Goodale.
Goodale resumed his questioning of defendant. Defendant related more incriminating details about Straub’s death, although he still insisted that Aikens alone had killed her. Defendant then returned to his cell, but shortly thereafter he asked a jailer to tell Goodale to return and “to bring his tape recorder.”
When Goodale arrived, he again advised defendant of his Miranda rights. Defendant then admitted that he had participated in Straub’s murder. He stated that he and Aikens had beaten, raped, and sodomized Straub and that when she had resisted, Aikens pushed his fist into her anus causing her to bleed profusely. They then tied Straub’s arms and legs behind her back and gagged her and put her in the bathtub. Defendant stated that he and Aikens became concerned that Straub might report them to the police, and they decided to kill her. After looping a towel around Straub’s neck, each man pulled one end until she was dead. They then placed her body on the bed, doused it with lighter fluid, set it afire, and left. Defendant admitted that they burned the motel room to destroy any evidence that could link them to the crime.
Defendant then asked if Goodale knew what would happen to defendant in Oregon. Goodale explained the Oregon homicide laws. Defendant then said that he was willing to plead guilty to murder but hoped that he would not be sentenced to death.
On August 28, Goodale again spoke with defendant, who stated that Straub had been conscious when he and Aikens carried her into the motel bathroom and placed her in the bathtub. He also admitted that he rather than Aikens had placed his fist in Straub’s anus.
https://law.justia.com/cases/oregon/supreme-court/1990/309-or-564.html