The ‘Lords of Chaos’ Murder- The Case of Mark Schwebes
I watched an episode of The Deadliest Decade: 1990’s, for this case. It’s season 1 episode 4, titled ‘Lords of Chaos.’ I’ve never heard about this case before, but it was around the time that the Columbine Massacre had also made headlines. This is a case about a group of men who killed an innocent teacher because they were obsessed with guns and bombs.
Background
Mark Schwebes was a 32 year old band teacher at Riverdale High School in Fort Myers, Florida. He had a passion for music, and helping students.
Mark Schwebes
The last known person that Mark had spoken to was his sister, the night before he was killed. He said the next day he was going to host an ice cream social at the school with his students, as well as middle school students to try to get them to join band when they came to high school. The ice cream social was on April 30, 1996 in the school auditorium. It ended around 9:30pm, and then Mark went home.
Murder
On April 30, 1996, the police were called to Mark’s home in Pine Manor. They arrived around 11:30pm, finding a gruesome scene. Mark had been shot once in the face, and once in his lower back/butt area. The police believe that Mark was killed immediately.
The police also found blood on the wall of Mark’s home, bullet holes in the wall and shell casings on the front porch. They also searched Mark’s car, and found some interesting items. They found a fire extinguisher, canned food and staplers. They also found Mark’s Riverdale High ID (which is how they identified him) and his wallet with $65 dollars inside. They ruled out robbery as the motive.
Investigation
The police began their investigation with talking to Mark’s neighbors, who all said they heard two gunshots, and a loud car driving away. However, their accounts varied when it came to the murderer’s race and what type of car was seen driving away.
The first suspect they had was a man named Bob Mann. He was the ex-boyfriend of Mark’s new girlfriend, Paula Dodd. Paula was also a teacher at Riverdale High, and had reportedly broken up with Bob the night before Mark’s murder. Bob was ruled out though, he was home with his wife. (Yep, that’s right he was married!)
On May 3, 1996, the police received a tip from a high school dropout named Julie Schuchard. She said her on and off boyfriend named Craig Lesh had admitted that he was at Mark’s on the night of his murder. The police immediately bring Craig in.
Craig admitted that he did tell Julie he was there, but that he actually wasn’t. The police were skeptical at first. Craig does admit that he knows who was actually did kill Mark. He said he was part of a group called the Lords of Chaos.
The Lords Of Chaos
Craig said the group consisted of four members, who were also responsible for the Coca-Cola plant bombing that happened on April 20, ten days before the murder of Mark.
Craig gave the names of the four members, Kevin Foster, who was the leader, Paul Magnotti, Chris Black and Derek Shields. The members were brought in for questioning.
Kevin Foster, Paul Magnotti, Chris Black and Derek Shields
The only person that confessed to the police about what happened was Derek Shields, who was a student of Mark’s. He claimed he went along with it so that Kevin wouldn’t kill him. He said they were planning to rob a Hardee’s restaurant, but then decided to go and rob Riverdale High on April 30. However, when they got there they had to wait until the ice cream social wrapped up.
They went inside and stole the fire extinguisher, staplers and canned food. Chris Black was their lookout. Mark was leaving to go home after the social, and he caught Chris in the parking lot with the stolen items. Derek said that Mark took the items, and that’s why those items were found in Mark’s car. Derek then said that Kevin said they had to do something about Mark catching them, so that he wouldn’t report them. Chris apparently had the idea to kill Mark.
The Murder Plot
The four members drove to Mark’s around 11:30pm, Derek said that Kevin gave him the job to knock on Mark’s door. Derek said he did what Kevin told him so that he wasn’t killed. Derek was interviewed on this episode, and he said he was praying that Mark didn’t answer the door. However, he did and Kevin shot him with a shot gun, and they drove away.
All four members of the group were charged with premediated first degree murder.
Trial and Convictions
In March 1997, Paul Magnotti pleaded guilty to first degree murder, and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. He also agreed to testify. Derek Shields and Chris Black also pleaded guilty, they were sentenced to life in prison.
Kevin Foster refused to plead guilty and went on trial. His trial began on March 3, 1998. On March 11, he was found guilty. On June 17, 1998, Kevin Foster was sentenced to death.
Mark’s sister said in this episode that Kevin had “dead eyes,” and described him as pure evil. She also said while they were at his trial he motioned a finger gun at her and other members of Mark’s family.
Other
As of October 2018, Kevin Foster is still on death row at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Kevin is a vile human being, and so are the other members. I didn’t believe anything Derek Shields said in the episode. I don’t believe he just went along with it because he was afraid, they planned Mark’s murder and he had multiple opportunities to leave, call the police or turn them in right away. I don’t believe he’s as sick as Kevin, but he deserves to be in prison for life.
I’m happy that there were some good people out there that turned in these people, and put them in prison where they belong. I hope that this brought Mark’s family some closure, even though it can’t bring Mark back.
Just an FYI, if you Google this case there is an image of Mark laying dead so just a warning because it was definitely not an image I wanted to see.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Chaos_(criminal_group)
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15990418
