EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Court documents obtained by KTSM 9 News revealed the hateful language a woman had written on a paper plate and had placed inside a Central El Paso church last week, which came with a business gift card.
Court documents state that Marynka Zarina Marquez, 35, of Denton, Texas, is facing a charge of arson with intent to cause damage to a habitation or place of worship after also setting a fire outside Beth El Bible Church located at 6440 Montana Ave on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Officers were dispatched to the church in response to the fire, and upon arrival, they spoke with a female witness who said that Marquez had caused a fire outside the church and left a threatening message inside the church.
The message depicted hateful language towards Conservative Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month while addressing an audience at Utah Valley University.
The witness told police that she was at the church earlier that Wednesday, attending a prayer meeting with the pastor and other volunteers, when she heard the doorbell ring.
The witness said she went to answer the door and saw Marquez, who was carrying two bags — a brown paper bag with a brown towel inside, and a blue gift bag.
Marquez told the witness that she wanted to drop off a package for the Charlie Kirk vigil the church was hosting the following night, according to court documents.
The witness let Marquez inside the church and walked her to the sanctuary near the front stage of the church, where flower arrangements for the vigil were displayed.
Marquez then placed the blue gift bag in the sanctuary, where the other arrangements were displayed.
The witness told police that Marquez held onto the brown paper bag and walked Marquez back to the front of the church, where she exited.
The witness returned to the prayer meeting, and more than 30 minutes later, the pastor said that he was going home and left the church.
The pastor then came back and told the witness to go outside and call the police. When the witness went outside, she saw a fire that had been put out by the pastor.
Police say that Marquez had placed the brown paper bag against the outside wall of the church, set it on fire, and fled the scene.
The witness went back into the church after she remembered that Marquez had left the blue gift bag inside.
Inside the blue bag was a paper plate with writing, a printed photograph with writing around the edges, and a business card. The bag had a handwritten “RIP” and “PSALMS 118:6” on the outside.
The writing around the photograph read “C is 4 coward, C is 4 conservative, C is 4 control.” The paper plate also had writing that read “C Kirk is eating p*** and s**** in hell” on the front and “Soon you’ll help him eat and drink it all” on the back of the paper plate.
The witness told police that she felt like this was a threat to the church regarding the planned vigil for Charlie Kirk, which was expected to attract 100-150 people.
The photograph was a screenshot of a video, depicting a young girl being carried by a man. Court documents say the girl appeared dirty in the photo and seemed to be of Middle Eastern ethnicity.
In the upper left corner of the photograph, the letters “trtworld” can be seen, and in the upper right corner, “0:22” can be seen.
The business card that was found stated “Zarina Marquez, Strategist, Artist, Problem Solver,” paired with a link to a website and a QR code to scan.
Officials went ahead and searched the website and found a group photo of individuals. The group photo was shown to the witness, who pointed out Marquez, who was standing in the middle of the group photo.
Court documents say the website advertises “La Macuca,” which is an LLC that sells art and provides services for human-rights-based strategists.
Court documents say that the gift card was left unexpectedly and tucked inside the blue gift bag.
After locating the group photo and other information from the website, officials were able to conduct a Texas Driver’s License Inquiry and discovered that Marquez was cited in El Paso in 2007 and had a residential address in El Paso.
On Sept. 18, Marquez was located and was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $50,000 bond.
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