Son Held in Slaying of Emmy Winner

A 32-year-old man was held Monday on suspicion of fatally shooting his father, an Emmy Award-winning sound technician, in the father’s Reseda home.

William Marky, 63, was shot in the head about 11 p.m. Sunday in his backyard in the 18900 block of Valerio Street, police said.

Police were summoned by a 911 call from the victim’s wife, Rosemary Marky.

Police said that as they arrived, a next-door neighbor yelled from a window, “He’s got a gun” and pointed to Marky’s son, Matthew Marky, who was running through the neighbor’s house.

Matthew Marky and his girlfriend had been living with the neighbor for about a month, Los Angeles Police Det. Rick Swanston said. Police surrounded the home, and the neighbor escaped through a bathroom window. Matthew Marky peacefully surrendered about two hours later, Swanston said.

He was being held at the LAPD’s West Valley Division jail Monday in lieu of $1-million bail and will be charged with murder, Swanston said.

Detectives on Monday did not have a motive for the shooting, but Swanston said Matthew Marky’s girlfriend had died of a drug overdose earlier Sunday at a hospital. Authorities did not release her name.

There was no indication that Matthew Marky was under the influence of drugs of alcohol at the time of the shooting, Swanston said.

Colleagues described the elder Marky as an immensely talented and well-known figure in his field. He won an Emmy in 1982 for Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Mixing for “Hill Street Blues.”

“He was totally honest and a gentleman,” said David Collier, a longtime friend who worked with Marky on the set of “The A-Team” in the 1980s. “He looked out for everyone and was very confident and meticulous with his work.”

David Milch, an executive producer of “Hill Street Blues,” said Marky left the show for personal reasons only a few years after it began in 1981. He said Marky had admitted having an alcohol problem and consulted Milch about overcoming it, as he had done.

Steven Bochco, co-creator of the long-running police series, said Marky was extremely talented, but “difficult” and “complicated.” By the late ‘80s, he said, Marky seemed to have conquered the alcohol problem and worked again with Bochco on the TV show “Doogie Howser.”

“He was one of the best sound guys we ever had,” Bochco said.

Records show that from 1993 to 1998, Marky’s son also belonged to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union his father belonged to from 1967 to 1993. Swanston said he is currently unemployed.

The houses where father and son lived are separated by no more than 20 feet in the quiet middle-class neighborhood. Neighbors said the Markys were friendly, and no one recalled hearing any family disputes.