commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Yesterday, we posted a story about the Delaware boy, Seth Ramsey, who shot and killed his father, Todd Ramsey, with a crossbow because he was afraid that his dad would be angry because he had cut school. In the post, I suggested that Seth’s seemingly incomprehensible actions were a good example of how teens, due to natural chemical imbalances, that are part and parcel of the maturation process, sometimes go crazily overboard (as Seth did here) in ways that make absolutely no sense, with devastating consequences.
Today, we have a story about another 17-year-old boy, Daniel Marsh, who 20 months ago – in an immensely disturbing and completely random torture/attack – literally disemboweled two elderly Davis, California residents purely for the fun of it.
Thus, we have two teens, both of whom have taken life for no good reason. In the case of Seth, however, we appear to have a troubled teen who is probably far from completely evil, yet who — more or less on the spur of the moment — did a terrible thing which may well result in him spending the rest of his life behind bars.
In the case of Daniel Marsh, on the other hand, we have a teen who appears to embody the essence of pure evil — if such a thing exists and is can manifest in one so young. What makes 
Daniel’s case all the stranger is that fact that when he was 12, he was honored by the American Red Cross for rising to the occasion and steering the family station wagon to safety when his father suffered a heart attack while behind the wheel.
At Daniel’s Yolo County trial back in September, truly shocking testimony (and remember, I don’t shock easily) was introduced concerning both Daniel’s state of mind at the time of the torture-murders, as well as his specific actions upon randomly entering the home of his victims.
CBS Local writer Ron Jones described the disturbing trial events in September:
Chilling new statements rattled a Yolo County courtroom Wednesday in the trial against a teen accused of murdering an elderly couple.
Daniel Marsh sat quietly and stared at papers in front of him as the jury heard a second day of testimony in the gruesome killings of Claudia Maupin and her husband, Chip Northup. Last April they were found stabbed to death in bed in their Davis home.
According to the police, after he was apprehended, Daniel reportedly confessed to breaking into their house and murdering Ms. Maupin and Mr. Northup. Daniel, who was apparently completely immersed in the aftermath of his frenzied blood lust, told the police that he felt “pure happiness” as he stabbed both of his helpless victims 60 times.
This is probably as “up close and personal” as we are likely to get to the state of mind of a “happy killer” as he commits his gruesome handiwork.
In what was undoubtedly a particularly poignant and heart-rending moment, the couple’s housekeeper of 12 years, Delonda Jones, testified that she was in the dark about the murders until she saw a news report on television and cried out: “That’s my clients! That’s my clients!”
Marsh was a mere 15 when, dressed in black, wearing a shoplifted ski mask and armed with a hunting knife, he set out during the wee hours of April 14, 2013 to find a victim(s), any victim. According to the investigators, in his confession, Daniel stated “that he had gone to between 40 and 50 homes looking for unlocked doors or windows when he foud an open window at the couple’s home. He said he watched the couple as they slept before he attacked.”
The investigators also stated that during his confession, Daniel admitted “he knew what he was doing was wrong, but still did it anyway”, telling the police:
“It felt right,” “It felt amazing,” “It felt great.”
Although it’s impossible to fully explain what changed Daniel from a presumably normal boy into a ravenous killer, David Smith, writing for the Sacramento Bee, sheds some light on the situation:
A counselor testified during the trial that Marsh daydreamed of torture. A state psychologist testified that Marsh studied serial killers. He surfed websites with images of beheadings and disembowelment in the weeks before the killings, investigators testified.
Upon breaking into the victims’ home, Marsh stabbed them in their bedroom as they awakened. The torture and mutilation that followed was “so savage that jurors at his murder trial were moved to tears and that prosecutors called it the most heinous they had seen”:
“I’ve been a prosecutor for 28 years, and never have I seen a defendant with such an evil soul,” said Michael Cabral, Yolo County assistant chief deputy district attorney and lead prosecutor on the case.
The intensely disturbing nature of Daniel’s actions is exemplified by testimony from Bryan Esparza, the paramedic who pronounced then dead:
“There was removal of the organs from the bodies.”
Daniel reportedly showed no emotion during most of the testimony.
Yolo Superior Court Judge David Reed was understandably incensed and “laced into Marsh during Friday’s hearing.”
Doyle Murphy writes for the Daily News:
“The murders in this case were brutal, the victims were random,” Reed said, according to the Bee. “He tortured them and took pleasure in what he had done. He told friends. He slaughtered Northup and Maupin out of morbid curiosity.”
Judge Reed sentenced Daniel to 52 years in California State prisons. He will be held in a juvenile facility until he turns 18, at which time he will be transferred to the Big House.
Curiously, the male victim Chip Northup was an attorney who served “as a Yolo County prosecutor early in his law career and once tried cases in the very courthouse” where Daniel was convicted.
His wife Claudia Maupin, 76, “was a pastoral associate and spiritual director at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, where Northup was a founding member.” Northup and Maupin became man and wife late in life and would have been married 18 years this November.
Marsh’s attorney never denied that Daniel murdered the elderly couple. He blamed the teen’s actions on his parents’ divorce and antidepressants, and Daniel pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a defense that no one seems to have paid much attention to.
* * * * *
Thus we have two sides of a murderous coin. Heads is Seth Ramsey who appears to have killed his father Todd almost on a whim, for no good reason, although some true crime followers have speculated (without evidence) that Todd may have abused the boy.
Tails we have Daniel Marsh who self-admittedly reveled in his appalling deeds. Daniel received a sentence of 52 years and is eligible for parole — not that he’s likely to receive it — in 25 years.
Seth Ramsey could very likely receive a similar sentence for a single arrow, well-placed, delivered with lethal impact to his father’s torso.
Both teens were undoubtedly laboring under the influence of the natural chemical imbalances that plague most, if not all, teenagers. Why do some teens, like Seth, commit a mindless murder on a whim while others, like Daniel, engage in the most brutal acts imaginable, while a third group (the vast majority) stumble through their teen years without ever getting into any serious trouble? I can’t answer this question and I find it endlessly frustrating…
Meanwhile, it is tempting to believe that the sort of evil that ravaged Daniel Marsh, who in turn ravaged his two elderly victims, is an actual metaphysical presence that usurps the identity of certain unlucky souls such as Daniel who then have little choice other than to carry out the dark force’s infernal bidding.