Columbus man who offered teen cell phone, shoes, marijuana for sex pleads guilty

Marquis Jamal Parks was 23 years old in 2018 when he was arrested for trading gifts for sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Now 25, the Columbus man is headed to prison after pleading guilty to four of the 14 charges he initially faced.

Police said that from Aug. 1 to Oct. 8, 2017, Parks and the teen repeatedly had oral and anal sodomy, sometimes in Parks’ home in Oakland Park, as Parks offered to buy the boy a cell phone, marijuana, shoes and other clothing.

The sex acts ended Oct. 8, 2017, when police found the boy’s nude photo on Parks’ phone during a domestic disturbance call to Parks’ neighborhood off South Lumpkin Road, detectives said.

During Parks’ preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court, Cpl. Mark Scruggs said that when confronted with the photo, Parks ran inside an apartment and shut the door, which officers had to kick in to detain him.

When investigators learned the extent of the sexual favors the boy had exchanged for gifts, they got warrants in February 2018 charging Parks with five counts of aggravated sodomy, five counts of sodomy and four counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes.

In a plea deal negotiated by defense attorney Michael Eddings and prosecutor Robin King, Parks pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation before Superior Court Judge Gil McBride sentenced him to 20 years in prison, with five years to serve and the rest on probation.

This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 5:02 PM.