Man Guilty of Slaying Father, Girlfriend

A Reseda man was found guilty Monday of murdering his girlfriend and his Emmy-winning father, then trying to shoot a housemate during a daylong rampage in a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Matthew Marky, 33, listened forlornly in a near-empty Van Nuys courtroom as a clerk read the jury’s verdicts: guilty of first-degree murder for strangling his girlfriend, Maria Ruiz-Smeriglio; guilty of second-degree murder for shooting his father, William Marky; and guilty of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting at housemate Scott Hinkley.

The jury also found Marky guilty of the special circumstance of double murder, which means he will automatically receive life in prison without parole.

In a hearing scheduled for Jan. 28, he will face additional sentences of 25 years to life for using a gun in the attack on his father, and up to 26 years for the assault charge and a charge of firearm possession by a felon.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided earlier not to seek the death penalty against Marky.

Marky’s attorney, James E. Blatt, said the jury’s decisions were influenced by the conflicting stories and lies Marky told about the events of Aug. 5, 2001. “In my discussions with the jurors, they had a great concern for the numerous false statements [Marky] made,” Blatt said. “That was a significant factor in their determination.”

Prosecutors said the “violent rampage” began when Marky, a cocaine and alcohol abuser, decided to lash out against Ruiz-Smeriglio because she had kicked him during an earlier dispute.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Dale Cutler and Dmitry Gorin said they were able to show a pattern of violence on Marky’s part and an attempt to cover up his crimes. They played jurors a tape of a 911 call Marky made that Sunday afternoon, in which he said that Ruiz-Smeriglio had stopped breathing. On the tape, Marky could be heard making obviously false sound effects to make it seem as if he were administering CPR, Cutler said.

A few hours after killing his girlfriend, Marky was drinking beer with his 63-year-old father in the backyard of his father’s house, which was next door to the house Marky shared with Hinkley and Ruiz-Smeriglio in the 18900 block of Valerio Street. At 11 p.m., William Marky was fatally shot in the eye with his own gun.

Gorin said Marky gave four versions of the incident. In the final version on the witness stand, Marky said he and his father grappled for the gun, and William Marky was shot at close range. But Cutler and Gorin introduced physical evidence that showed the father must have been shot from a distance.

After the shooting, prosecutors said Marky ran back to his house and tried to kill Hinkley for reasons that are not clear. But Marky’s gun misfired and Hinkley was able to hide in a bathroom until police arrived.

At one point, Marky tried to convince authorities that it was Hinkley who shot his father.

During the trial, defense attorney Blatt argued that Hinkley’s recollection of the shooting attempt was a drug-induced hallucination. Blatt argued that Marky had killed his father in self-defense, and that another man had strangled Ruiz-Smeriglio.

Gorin said that while Ruiz-Smeriglio and Hinkley had substance abuse problems, only Marky had a previous history of violence.

One witness testified that Marky had assaulted a convenience store clerk a few months before the incidents, because the clerk had forgotten to give Marky a book of matches.

“I think this was a long time coming,” Gorin said.

The elder Marky was a Vietnam veteran and respected Hollywood sound technician who won an Emmy in 1982 for his work on the TV series “Hill Street Blues.”