Can a mental health diagnosis change the course of one incarcerated man’s life? His supporters hope so. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Devin Blake
February 5, 2024
Jeff Monday has been an educator for over 30 years. For much of that time, one of his former students has been serving a life sentence in prison.
The student, Marquis Gilliam, was found guilty of first-degree murder. Both Gilliam and Monday readily acknowledge Gilliam’s guilt, but Monday thinks that justice and the community would be better served if Gilliam were released.
Monday met Gilliam in 1992 at Messmer High School, when Gilliam was a freshman and Monday was a vice principal.
“He was a smart guy in high school, but he would fall into these moments of despair and disengagement,” Monday said.
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Monday attributed Gilliam’s behavior to the death of his mother.
According to court documents, a 12-year-old Gilliam witnessed his mother get shot and killed by his stepfather.
The stepfather was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in 1990.
As an educator, Monday took his duties to help Gilliam seriously. He wanted to be like the teachers he had as a student who “made a real difference” in his own life.
But Monday said his efforts were limited by that era’s approach to mental health.
“I certainly did not have a level of expertise at all in terms of what Marquis needed most, and that was some significant services around his mental health,” Monday said.
After receiving mental health training over the years, Monday now believes Gilliam’s behavior was clearly the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
PTSD results from a terrifying event, according to the Mayo Clinic, and affects a person’s mood, thinking and behavior. Symptoms vary but often include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety.
Gilliam said he avoided thinking or talking about his mother during that time and “would always isolate myself away from everyone.”
“I was angry about what happened. I was hurt. I was struggling,” Gilliam said.
Gilliam would not learn about his PTSD diagnosis until he was roughly 20 years into his prison sentence.
During the summer of 1997, a year or so after graduating from high school, Gilliam went to an after-hours party where he saw Dion Lucas, a man he knew.
At some point in the evening, a disagreement took place, and Gilliam shot and killed Lucas.
At his trial, Gilliam’s then-attorney argued that it was self-defense because Gilliam thought Lucas was going for a gun.
The jury did not accept this argument, but that is because it did not have all the relevant information, said Rex Anderegg, Gilliam’s current attorney.
A few months after being sentenced, Gilliam was diagnosed with PTSD by a Wisconsin Department of Corrections psychiatrist.
Gilliam was not informed of this diagnosis, though, and only learned about it roughly five years ago, when he finally decided to read transcripts and records from his trial.
Anderegg said the diagnosis, if known at the time of the trial, could have made a difference in the case.
“So if the jury says, ‘Yeah, Marquis really did believe that he needed to shoot to save his own life – it just wasn’t a reasonable belief,’ then that’s second degree intentional homicide,” Anderegg said. “That I think would have been a more appropriate outcome for the case.”
In other words, knowing about his PTSD could have allowed the jury to understand why Gilliam thought his life was in danger even if it actually was not.
The second-degree murder conviction would mean that Gilliam would be released for time served and could be paroled, Anderegg said.
Anderegg is trying to achieve this outcome through two different means: a new trial or a sentence modification.
As Gilliam awaits a decision from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on both of these options, his supporters are showing support in the ways they can.
At his first trial, Monday testified to Gilliam’s good character. Now, Monday is stressing Gilliam’s undiagnosed and untreated PTSD at the time of the crime.
He, like other supporters, have written letters to the district attorney’s office to consider Gilliam’s case based on this new information.
Monday and Gilliam consistently stay in communication, and Monday is open to providing further testimony if the opportunity arises.
Monday considers his support of Gilliam to be a way of living out his faith.
But this support is not solely for Gilliam’s sake, Monday said.
“I have a commitment to assisting in whatever way can be helpful to Marquis and to society as well,” he said.
This commitment includes “enabling Marquis to tell his story to other disadvantaged youth in a way that may be helpful to them,” Monday said.
Monday said he wants youths to understand that “It’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK not to be OK.”
Gilliam said he consistently sees trauma similar to his own in other people in prison.
One common denominator among these individuals, said Gilliam, is a history of abuse – either experiencing it or witnessing it.
“It’s not just me suffering,” he said. “Right now where I’m looking, I see it. They are suffering in silence.”
Devin Blake is the criminal justice reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. His position is funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, which plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.