KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 28-year-old Kansas City, Missouri man has been sentenced for the deaths of 26-year-old Michael McLin and 52-year-old Kevin Waters in August 2019.
A Jackson County judged has sentenced Mario J. Markworth to 28 years in a Missouri prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of Waters and voluntary manslaughter for the death of McLin.
When officers arrived on scene they found the two victims dead. The victims had several wounds from head trauma and sharp force.
The Jackson County Medical Examiner determined they were the victims of homicide. Both were determined by police to be transients known to associate with others in the northeast area of Kansas City.
Information from witnesses led police to Markworth, who was taken into custody on Aug. 7, 2019. He told police detectives he and McLin had been in an altercation. When McLin started to walk away, Markworth picked him up and dropped him on the pavement.
He said McLin hit his head on his axe. Then, Markworth said, he struck the victim more times in the head with the axe so he wouldn’t tell anyone. As he was trying to hide McLin’s shoes he saw another man hidden along the fence nearby, he told detectives, so he asked him if he had seen him and McLin. Then he struck him with an axe.
Markworth told detectives he had been raised in a Christian home and knew right from wrong. He also knew his actions were not right.