HOUSTON – The father of a 6-year-old boy, who prosecutors say was drugged to death by his mother for insurance money, says he still wakes up thinking it was a dream.
“I was thinking that it was a dream, a bad dream. I just want to wake up and say, ‘oh that was a bad dream,’” Mario Sanchez told KPRC 2.
Sanchez’s son, Jason, died last June. He was just weeks shy of his seventh birthday.
His mother, Ashley Marks, was arrested Wednesday and is in a Harris County jail charged with capital murder after investigators say they found Nyquil, methamphetamine, and cocaine in his system.
Sanchez and Marks divorced a couple of years ago. Their two children had been living with Marks’ father for two months leading up to their son’s death.
Marks called Sanchez to tell him about the death on June 27 but didn’t say if she had anything to do with it.
“I was thinking, ‘What happened to my son, who did it? That’s the first question? Who did it? Why,’” said Sanchez.
KPRC 2 obtained an affidavit Mario Sanchez submitted to the court in an ongoing custody battle with his ex-wife.
“After Jason passed, I learned that during the afternoon of June 26, 2020, Jason was hallucinating and throwing up,” Sanchez wrote. “No one told me about what was happening to Jason. If I would have known Jason was having health problems, I would have taken him to the doctor immediately.”
According to investigators, Ashley Marks is a licensed insurance agent. Just before they say she drugged her son, prosecutors say she took out two insurance policies on his life.
Sanchez told KPRC 2 he just wishes his ex-wife would have asked him for money instead of killing their child.
“Man, I feel sad right now,” Sanchez said as he sat at Arthur Storey Park in southwest Houston, a place where Sanchez used to play with Jason and his younger sister. “We fished over there on the lake. He played over here.”
Sanchez said Jason also loved to play with the ducks.
He still goes to the park with his 5-year-old daughter, but she has a hard time understanding why Jason isn’t with them.
Now, instead of going to the park to spend time with Jason, Sanchez said every Saturday, he visits his son at his gravesite.