Georgia inmate admits to Calif. shooting during nationwide crime spree

<p>A man now serving time in a Georgia prison has pleaded guilty to attempted murder for shooting a man who was sleeping on the side of the highway near Big Sur.</p><p>Shannon Marz, 39, admitted on Monday that he shot Garry Allen Ashley, 50, eight times on May 16, 1999 while he slept in a sleeping bag in a roadside turnout near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. He said he stole Ashley's wallet and car keys.</p><p>Marz was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle in Ohio a month later, and a DNA sample linked him to a rape of a 16-year-old girl in Nahunta, Ga., on May 31, 1999. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to the rape and was sentenced to 20 years in a Georgia prison.</p><p>While in prison, Marz confessed to the Ashley shooting and a monthlong crime spree that included shootings and robberies in Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Carolina, said Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Hulsey.</p><p>Marz wrote a letter to federal authorities offering to confess to those crimes if he could get transferred to a federal prison because he feared for his safety in Georgia.</p><p>Marz wrote that his actions were the result of heavy drinking and cocaine use at the time, and "the only thing I can do now is try to make things right with everyone involved."</p><p>Authorities in many of the states did not pursue charges because they were unable to locate his victims, but Utah authorities plan to prosecute him next for an attempted robbery, Hulsey said.</p><p>Marz is scheduled to be sentenced June 28 to a mandatory term of 32 years to life by Monterey County Superior Court Judge Terrance Duncan. He'll be returned to Georgia to finish his sentence before serving time in California, Hulsey said.</p>