Friend: 2011 arrest destroyed courthouse gunman

"He's not what they're painting him to be. He's not a black helicopter guy," said Crisci, rejecting any notion of Marx being an anti-government zealot. "He was a good person. Helped me out of a lot of jams."

Marx, heavily armed and wearing two sets of bulletproof vests, was shot dead Friday morning after driving a Nissan Armada onto the steps of the courthouse. According to Forsyth Sheriff Duane Piper, Marx intended to ram the SUV into the building and attach bombs to hostages.

Deputy Daniel Rush, the first law enforcement officer to engage Marx, was shot in the leg and remains in stable condition at a local hospital, according to a sheriff’s spokesman.

As the bullets flew outside, Marx’s newly hired lawyer Manny Arora waited for his client to show up in Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley’s courtroom for a hearing on charges of marijuana possession with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Arora declined comment, but Marx’s former attorney, Ann Shafer, said a “very reasonable” plea deal had been reached.

“It’s very confusing to me because he had a plea worked out — 60 days to serve, which means he actually serves 30,” Sheriff Piper told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Everything had worked his way.”

But in the nearly three years since his arrest, Marx had lost much of his savings and his ability to make a living, said Crisci, a former co-worker who added that his children called Marx “Uncle Dennis.”

“(Marx) felt it was a money grab,” he said. During one of their last conversations Marx told him he was going to lose his home.

In a federal lawsuit filed last year, Marx said Forsyth deputies violated his constitutional rights by engaging in an illegal search of his home. He also alleged he was beaten during his arrest.

When Marx was arrested, Shafer said, deputies showed up in full force, including the SWAT team.

Inside, they found a safe where Marx kept all his savings, about $30,000 at the time, Crisci said.

“They claimed it was drug profits,” he said. “But Dennis didn’t have a bank account. He just didn’t trust banks. He kept all the money he ever had locked up in that safe.”

Crisci said Marx trafficked in neither drugs or guns.

“His ‘grow house’ was a 4-by-6 closet with some pot plants,” he said, adding Marx smoked marijuana to deal with the back pain he suffered as a result of two serious automobile accidents.

“If someone wanted some marijuana, he’d get them some, but he was no dealer. He didn’t seek out customers,” Crisci said.

Court records show that four of the distribution charges brought against Marx had been dismissed.

Marx did frequent gun shows — not to sell firearms, but a gun-cleaning lubricant. The 48-year-old Wisconsin native had struck out on his own after losing his job with the Transportation Security Administration, where Crisci said he had clashed with superiors because he felt they were overlooking potential threats.

“He was a flag-waving, patriotic guy,” Crisci said. “He wasn’t part of any hate group or anti-government group. Dennis just wanted to be left alone.”

Piper confirmed that Marx’s vendetta was personal.

“There is nothing to indicate he was involved with any groups … no writing, no printouts of writing, no reading material,” the sheriff said.

After the arrest, Marx no longer had the money to travel to gun shows. And with the criminal charges pending against him, getting a job was practically impossible, Crisci said.

He started selling off his possessions, but since he had used his home to post bond, selling it wasn’t an option. Friends and family helped out as much as they could, but it was clear to Crisci that Marx felt trapped with no hope of escape.

“He had lost just about everything,” Crisci said. “There’s some fragile people out there who just can’t deal with it when their whole world caves in. What he did was crazy — there’s no defending it. But that arrest absolutely drove him over the edge.”