An Ironton man convicted of a triple murder and string of arsons will learn his fate Monday.

Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Richard Walton has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. sentencing for Roger Marshall, 59.

Marshall was convicted in February of setting a fire at the Lyle Motel two years ago that killed three people, Lolaetta Corbin Hicks, James Reed and John Meyer.

In addition to the three counts of aggravated murder, he was also convicted of 11 counts of aggravated arson, since other people were in the motel at the time of the fire but managed to escape the blaze.

The jury that decided Marshall’s guilt was unable to agree on what his punishment should be. After 22 hours of deliberations earlier this month, Walton declared a mistrial in the penalty portion of the case.

By law, Marshall’s fate now rests in the judge’s hands.

Both Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr. and defense co-counsel Charles Knight agreed after the mistrial was declared that Marshall now cannot be sentenced to death for those crimes — the punishment Collier had argued for throughout the trial.

But they differed on whether the judge was required to give Marshall the minimum sentence of life in prison with eligibility of parole after 25 years or one of two harsher sentences, life with possibility of parole after 30 or 35 years.

Knight had argued during his closing statement before the jury that Marshall should live the rest of his life in prison. He said even the lightest sentence possible would be tantamount to a death sentence to the graying Marshall.

“Roger Marshall is 59 years old. He has no possibility of seeing the outside world or even asking for parole until he is 84 years old,” Knight said.

But Collier argued during his closing statement that Marshall deserved no less than the harshest sentence, calling it a “just verdict given the circumstances of the case.”

The road to justice has been a slow one for Marshall and for the families of the three victims.

The fire occurred in the early morning hours of Monday, Aug. 2, 2004. Marshall was arrested shortly thereafter and charged in connection with the blaze and the resulting deaths.

The trial was initially scheduled for February 2005 but Knight and co-counsel William Eachus asked for additional time to prepare.

The trial was re-scheduled for April 11, 2005, but shortly before jury selection was to have commenced for the second time, the prosecution introduced new evidence in the case against Marshall and the trial was postponed until this year.

After a nearly two-week trial, Marshall was found guilty Feb. 23 and the sentencing phase was to have begun Feb. 27 but was postponed one month after Marshall was assaulted by another inmate at the Lawrence County Jail.

The case ended with two jurors and an alternate being dismissed.

One juror was dismissed after he was accused of talking about the case between the time the guilty verdict was handed down and the deliberations began in the punishment phase of the case.

A second juror was dismissed because she was informed about the first juror’s behavior. An alternate was released from service because illness in her family forced her to miss court proceedings one day.

Although the jury deliberated less than eight hours to decide if he was guilty, the deliberations to decide his punishment took

22 hours before Walton declared a mistrial.