DATE: Friday, July 18, 1997                 TAG: 9707180643

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   41 lines

CHARGE UPGRADED TO CAPITAL MURDER 2 OF 3 BROTHERS SUSPECTED IN DEATH OF CHESAPEAKE MAN APPEAR IN COURT.

A murder charge has been upgraded to capital murder against one brother accused of killing the former manager of Cinemark Movies 10 near Chesapeake Square Mall.

A younger brother, originally charged with murder, now faces lesser charges.

Mark E. Pickrel, 29, was dragged from his home in Western Branch on June 26, taken to a wooded area a few miles away and shot to death. Chesapeake police found his body near an overgrown dirt path in the 2300 block of Elizabeth Harbor Drive across from a Virginia Power substation.

Both boys appeared in court Thursday with their mother. Juvenile Court Judge Frederick H. Creekmore set bond for the younger brother, Tracy Marron, at $85,000. The 15-year-old is now charged with accessory after the fact to capital murder and receiving stolen property in Pickrel's shooting death.

His brother Travis Marron, 16, is now charged with capital murder, robbery and two firearms charges. He is being held without bond at Tidewater Detention Home.

A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 5 for both youths.

Richard Marron, a third brother and also a suspect in the killing, remains at large.

Pickrel, who knew the two youths charged in his death, served for the past four years on the board of directors for the Youth Crisis Network, a crisis intervention agency that works with youths and families throughout South Hampton Roads. However, there are no indications that Pickrel met the youths through that network.

On the day Pickrel was killed, police searched his apartment for evidence of child pornography, according to a search warrant affidavit. Police obtained the warrant after the suspects' mother gave them a safe that may have belonged to Pickrel which contained pornographic materials.

The search of his house produced a photo of one of the suspects, but police declined to say whether that photo was pornographic. KEYWORDS: MURDER ROBBERY ARREST

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