He dies. The woman, able to call 911 after being shot, was in critical condition Friday night.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published August 16, 2003
HOLIDAY - Kathleen Marks knew her ex-husband was dangerous.
He was constantly calling and driving by her home. He would walk in without permission and check her caller ID. He would peek into her windows, call her at work.
They were divorced July 7, and he was preoccupied with his belief that she was seeing another man.
Less than a month ago he told her that he planned to make every day of her life miserable.
Eight days ago she got a restraining order against him.
On Friday, he shot her.
Richard D. Brescia, 52, shot his ex-wife twice in the chest with a 9 mm submachine pistol in the living room of her home on Jambalana Drive in Holiday about 1:30 p.m.. Then he sat down and shot himself fatally in the head, authorities said.
The couple's two boys apparently were at school at the time.
Marks managed to call 911 after she was shot and was later taken to a hospital in critical condition, the Sheriff's Office said.
The couple had been married since 1988. The family was living at 1030 Dartmouth Drive in Holiday until Marks decided to leave.
Marks, 39, left her husband on May 1 and filed for divorce on June 12. A judge granted it on July 7. She and their 13-year-old son, Richard, moved less than a mile away to 1028 Jambalana Drive. Tyler, 11, stayed with his father.
"I told Kathy the biggest mistake she made was moving so close to him," said Carol Lopez, Marks' former neighbor on Dartmouth Drive. "That man was crazy. You could tell he wasn't all there."
Lopez said she was saddened, but not surprised, to hear about the shootings. "I knew he was capable of doing that," she said.
Marks works as a cake decorator at a Kash n' Karry in Anclote.
Brescia was jealous of a man he thought she was seeing and preoccupied with the idea that the man might move in with her, Marks wrote in her petition for a restraining order.
"(He) told me if I put any man in front of my boys he would take me to court and I would never see Tyler again," she wrote.
He also believed he was being pursued by people who wanted to kill him and possibly her, she wrote.
"He told me he had to stay here tonight because if something happened to him the police would come right to my work and arrest me," she said. He told her she would be the No. 1 suspect.
He slept with a loaded gun beside him. Neighbors said he was unemployed and came and went at odd hours.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office was making arrangements for the two boys Friday evening. As of 7:45 p.m., Marks was in critical condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
- Steve Thompson covers crime in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com
