After deliberating less than four minutes, a jury convicted Saundra Marcoot Tuesday, Oct. 8 of obstruction or retaliation of a public official, a Third Degree Felony. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The case stems from threatening District Court Judge Jason Cashon after his limited involvement in a 2018 custody case involving her son.
She was represented by court-appointed attorney Andrew Ottaway, while District Attorney Alan Nash represented the state. Judge Donald Jones presided over the case which began Monday, Oct. 7 in the 266th Judicial District Court.
After selecting a jury, but before they were seated in the courtroom, Judge Jones heard evidence in a hearing by Nash regarding extraneous bad acts and extraneous offenses allegedly committed by the defendant.
In layman’s terms, this means conduct that could reflect poorly on the accused, but is not part of the offense, could be discussed in front of the jury.
Jones ruled that these extraneous offenses and bad acts could only be used by the prosecution in regards to establishing Marcoot’s identity, motive or intent.
The prosecution could only use the acts (threats and outbursts) which related to the 2018 child custody case which appeared to be the focus of her anger at Judge Cashon.
Once the jurors were seated into the courtroom, Nash presented opening statements warning jurors that events were not always presented in a sequential order.
Ottaway presented a running objection to all extraneous offenses and bad acts on behalf of his client, which Jones overruled throughout the entire trial.
The custody case
Witness testimony explained the custody case in question stemmed from a CPS worker approaching Attorney Bethany Espinosa in regards of a willing family member, the child’s great-grandmother Judith Hallmark, that could take custody of Marcoot’s son, Maverick. Espinosa represented Hallmark in the child custody case.
“It’s supposed to be a priority to keep families together in CPS,” Espinosa said. Details of why CPS would have become involved were not detailed in the case.
If Marcoot agreed to the order, she would not have to pay child support, Espinosa said.
While the case was waiting to be heard by Judge Cashon, Marcoot (formerly Hudson) signed a voluntary order affecting child parent relationship along with Hallmark and the child’s father, Curtis Hudson.
Cashon never ruled on the case. Rather, he simply approved the agreement. Due to the animosity shown to the law firm and Espinosa’s legal assistant, a criminal trespass warning was put into place in 2018 on the law firm, meaning when the agreement had to be signed, it was done at a neighboring attorney’s office building.
In the order, Marcoot was to have visitation rights at least three times a week and on Mother’s Day. She could also ask for more, Espinosa said during her testimony. As long as Hallmark agreed to it, the visitation was to be approved.
There was never an order filed to amend child custody and Espinosa said she had no involvement in the case between 2018 and 2023. Throughout the court case, Ottaway emphasized how difficult it was for individuals to receive legal representation in custody and civil cases since it is not appointed through the court.
Witnesses
Court Baliff Robby Rudder, a long-time bailiff at the Donald R. Jones Justice Center, was the first witness called by Nash. Rudder provided testimony about a period of time where he got to know Marcoot because she was coming to the courthouse demanding to speak to the judge about the custody case.
Rudder said though he couldn’t definitively state the frequency of how often Marcoot would come to the courthouse, the message was the same. Rudder told her she needed to speak to an attorney and couldn’t speak to the judge.
“Sometimes she was polite, sometimes frenetic,” he said. “I was concerned about the level of animosity that was growing.”
Instead of letting her come to the district court window, security began alerting Rudder who would meet Marcoot at the front door security checkpoint to ask what business she had in the building.
Phone calls
In a wide variety of testimony, details were provided about when Marcoot began making phone calls.
In January 2023, according to a witness that worked for the McKethan-Espinoza law firm, the defendant called the office and threatened to blow up the building. “It concerned me,” the witness said.
Stephenville PD came and put criminal trespass warnings on both the current location of the law office and the former location. SPD asked Espinosa and her partner if they would like to pursue terroristic threat charges, but they declined.
“I wish we would have considered it more,” she said. “It was violent and scary and I should have.”
In August 2023, Marcoot mistakenly left a voicemail meant for Judge Cashon on the office line for County Judge Brandon Huckabee.
Jurors heard a recording of the call where Marcoot was heard saying, ““I’ve been seeing (Cashon) in the convenience store and he cowardly puts his head down… Be a man and come talk to me and quit unlawfully removing children.”
On Oct. 17, 2023, another phone call was made, this time to Stephenville Police Chief Dan Harris’ office line where his assistant Leah Rodriguez answered and Marcoot demanded she speak to the chief. In the recording, the defendant could be heard threatening to call back every five minutes until she got to speak to the chief and threatening to go to his home.
Though the chief was out of town, police immediately went to his home to protect his family.
Another phone call was played through 911 that was made to Erath County Sheriff’s Office dispatch where she stated she was going to her grandmother’s house.
“Get your sheriff cause I’m going to get my 9mm and I’m going to see my son,” she told 911, adding that she would “kill all three of them” once she got there. “This is not a joke. It’s about to be a very, very bad situation,” she was heard saying on the audio recording. Following this call, Marcoot was transported to a mental health facility.
The Cashons
When Judge Cashon and his wife Kristen took the stand they detailed being alarmed at what Marcoot had been posting on his wife’s social media page.
His wife has posted some renaissance faire photos for Mother’s Day of an outing and said, the language used on the post was alarming and she took screenshots.
“It made me rethink everything I post online,” Mrs. Cashon said. “I knew she was hurting and with pain comes desperation.”
After the posts, Judge Cashon said a close patrol was placed on his family and his kids. It was at this point that Cashon said uncomfortable conversation about his, his wife’s and his children’s safety had to take place with his kids.
“We had to tell them to be careful because of decisions daddy makes at work,” he said.
Judge Cashon detailed knowing that the defendant was coming to talk to him over and over again at the courthouse and that others were receiving calls, but he was not aware of how threatening those calls were until later. Cashon said if he would have heard the 911 call made, he would have moved forward with charges at that point. Over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2023 a message was left on Judge Cashon’s office voicemail.
In that recording, also played for jurors, Marcoot said, “Mr. Cashon, I tried to be calm, cool and collected with you…but enough is enough with your corrupt abulls--t.”
It was at this point where she threatened to bypass security measures and threatened to harm the judge. With concern for his family and himself, Judge Cashon had enough and moved forward to press charges. “You don’t know who to look out for. It makes you painfully aware that you can’t just put you head in the sand,” he said. “She hates me for reasons I don’t understand. I heard a sense of desperation and I believe she was going to take action.”