An Edgewater man has been found not guilty of killing a man prosecutors alleged he had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with, but a judge did find him guilty of hiding the victim’s body inside his apartment refrigerator. A trial observer said the judge “agreed specifically with the defense’s claim of self-defense.”
Judge Adrienne Davis sentenced Malik Lee, 48, to five years in prison for concealing a homicidal death. However, with Illinois’ standard 50% sentence reduction and credit for the time he spent in jail awaiting trial, Lee will not serve any additional prison time.
Marcus Merge was battling a life-threatening illness and struggling with drug addiction when someone killed him in his Edgewater apartment and stuffed his body into the refrigerator during the summer of 2020. After a two-year investigation, prosecutors charged Lee in July 2022, alleging he had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Merge. Prosecutors contended Lee strangled the 58-year-old with an extension cord during an argument.
Merge’s friends remembered him fondly in a Chicago Tribune story published shortly after his death, remembering him as a passionate Alcoholics Anonymous program sponsor.
“Before his mother’s recent death, Merge would ride trains and buses to visit her in Lake Forest. An interior designer by profession, he would decorate the windows of her senior housing according to the seasons,” the Tribune reported.
“He always made everybody feel very comfortable,” a friend told the paper. “Marcus to me is nothing but kindness and welcoming, and I don’t know why anybody would want to do that to him.”
According to prosecutors, Lee and Merge met about a year before the killing. They frequently got together to eat, use drugs, and occasionally have sex. Merge also sometimes gave Lee and members of his family money, prosecutors said. But over time, their relationship deteriorated. Prosecutors said Merge kept a “detailed calendar” documenting the relationship, a point they highlighted during Lee’s detention hearing on the Fourth of July in 2022.
Suffering from a debilitating disease, Merge’s weight had dropped to just 121 pounds by June 28, 2020. Around 4 p.m. that day, surveillance cameras in his apartment building in the 5700 block of North Sheridan recorded Merge returning home with Lee. Prosecutors said the two argued as they boarded the elevator and rode to the fifth floor. Merge was reportedly never seen leaving his apartment again.
Prosecutors alleged the argument continued inside the apartment. They said Merge struck Lee, leaving a cut near his eye. Lee then strangled Merge with his hands before choking him from behind after he fell to the floor, prosecutors claimed. They alleged Lee next used an extension cord to continue strangling Merge, but Merge managed to crawl into the bedroom. According to prosecutors’ theory, Lee followed him, grabbed a pillow, and smothered Merge before dragging his body into the bathroom.
When Lee realized Merge was dead, prosecutors argued, he bought six bags of ice and used them to keep the body cold in the bathtub. Later, they alleged, he removed the shelves from Merge’s refrigerator and stuffed the body inside.
A building manager discovered Merge’s body in the refrigerator during a well-being check on July 6, 2020. The Cook County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by strangulation.
Investigators found fingerprints on the refrigerator shelves, which had been hidden in a closet. Some belonged to a woman who worked at the appliance manufacturer’s factory in South Carolina. Prosecutors said the remaining prints matched Lee.
Lee still faces charges in another felony case.
On June 5, 2020, just 23 days before Merge was last seen alive, prosecutors charged Lee with attempted vehicular hijacking. In that case, prosecutors alleged he brandished a knife and ordered two people out of a car in the 1100 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue. The driver instead backed away and sought help. That case remains pending, and Lee is scheduled for a detention hearing on Monday.
