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PART SIXTEEN: THE TRIAL OF MARVIN GAY SR.
The legal proceedings against Marvin Gay Sr. unfolded over the course of 1984.
He had been charged with first-degree murder—the most serious charge available for an intentional killing, carrying the possibility of life imprisonment.
Then, in May 1984—approximately six weeks after the shooting—doctors examining Gay Sr. made a significant discovery.
He had a brain tumor.
It was benign, described as approximately the size of a walnut. His defense attorneys would argue, in the proceedings that followed, that the tumor may have affected his behavior and his cognitive state—that it may have contributed to the events of April 1.
The tumor was surgically removed.
Gay Sr.’s legal team used the medical finding as part of a broader argument about his mental and neurological state. The judge hearing the case ruled that Gay Sr. was competent to stand trial despite the tumor’s presence and removal.
The prosecution’s position had always been complicated by several factors. The autopsy found cocaine and PCP in Marvin Gaye’s system at the time of his death. Photographs documented injuries to Gay Sr. consistent with having been beaten before the shooting. These facts did not exonerate Gay Sr.—he had retrieved a weapon, returned to a room, and fired twice at a man who was no longer attacking him. But they complicated the narrative of a simple, premeditated murder.
On September 20, 1984—approximately five and a half months after the shooting—Gay Sr. entered a plea of no contest to the charge of voluntary manslaughter.