Son Won’t Face Charge of Aiding Suicide Attempt : Inquiry: Man loaded syringes for ailing mother, who tried to overdose on morphine. Officials cite a lack of evidence of overt act.

Prosecutors said Thursday that they lack evidence to file criminal charges against a Fullerton man who tried to help his pain-ravaged elderly mother kill herself in March using a massive injection of morphine.

The decision ends an agonizing three-month wait for real estate executive Christopher Marks, 51, who found himself facing possible prosecution after the March 1 suicide attempt. Marks loaded syringes for his 81-year-old mother, Alice Marks, then held her after she injected nearly four syringes of the drug at his home.

Alice Marks, who suffers from a degenerative bone disease that reduced her to a bed-ridden wisp of a woman, was revived by paramedics summoned after her son thought she was dead.

Christopher Marks reacted wearily to the news of the decision, saying he angrily demanded that the district attorney’s office end his waiting weeks ago.

“I think it may have been that they thought the media was going to go away, and then they could make a decision without there being a lot of publicity one way or the other,” Marks said.

He said his mother, who is living in a Fullerton retirement home, was relieved by the decision not to prosecute.

“She was real happy about it,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sheila Hanson said prosecutors could not prove that Marks did anything more than fill the syringes for his mother--a daily routine to allow her to make injections as the pain dictated. State law makes it a felony for anyone to aid, advise or encourage a suicide.

“What is against the law is some overt act that leads either to the attempt or commission of suicide . . . versus a mere sitting back and passively watching,” Hanson said. “The evidence is not there that he actually participated in the final act.”

The case generated widespread attention and expressions of support for the Marks family from strangers across Orange County.

It marked the latest round in a raging debate over attempts to reform state law, which makes it a felony to aid or encourage a suicide. A bill to legalize doctor-assisted suicide is stalled in the Legislature at least until next year.

Christopher Marks’ lawyer, Jennifer L. Keller, said prosecutors would have faced an uphill battle to persuade jurors to convict a figure as sympathetic as her client.

“What we really have here is a son who honored his mother’s request that she didn’t want to die alone,” Keller said. “That would have been a very sympathetic case for a jury.”

As much as Marks may have dreaded the prospect of becoming a criminal defendant, he said such a trial might have helped the effort to change the assisted-suicide law.

“I have somewhat mixed feelings,” Marks said. “I think the publicity from something like [being prosecuted] possibly would have caused them to change the law. But on a practical basis, I certainly didn’t want to go through with it.”

Alice Marks, a widowed mother of three sons who holds a master’s degree in counseling, lived on her own until a chronic arthritic condition worsened in 1992, making it excruciating even to walk. She moved into her son’s home and had a caretaker.

But after breaking her hip early this year, she decided that the constant pain made living unbearable, Christopher Marks has said. He said he refused to help her commit suicide, but would support her when she chose to die.

She summoned family members to her bedside and the next morning gave herself an injection that was meant to kill. Christopher Marks hugged and spoke to his mother for 20 minutes until she appeared dead. Then he called paramedics. But paramedics gave her a shot and revived her.

He said his mother still has not shed the pain.

“She’s still in a lot of pain. About the same, I would say,” he said.