A Houston man is facing bigamy charges after his wife was browsing Facebook and made the shocking discovery that he was married to another woman.
Marcus Andra Shorten, 53, is currently married to two or more women, police said, after his third wife, Tammie, discovered her spouse’s alleged crimes on social media.
Tammie married Shorten in 2012 but split in 2019. In an interview, she claimed the couple never formally divorced because Shorten feared being seen as a “failure”.
Shorten’s latest wife came onto the scene in December when Tammie found a wedding registry for her and her husband online. A wedding photo obtained by DailyMail.com appears to show the ceremony taking place earlier this year.
The name of that woman remains unknown and there is no indication that she was aware of Shorten’s illicit activities. Police are now searching for him, after finding two marriage licences but no divorce decree. He is currently charged with bigamy.
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Marcus Andra Shorten, 53, is currently married to two or more women, police said. A wedding photo obtained by DailyMail.com appears to show their alleged illegal wedding last January. There is no indication that the woman in the photo was aware of Shorten’s illicit activities.
The third wife, Tammie, who asked that her identity be withheld, discovered her husband’s sordid crimes while browsing Facebook, during which she found the couple’s wedding registry, she told ABC 13. Police confirmed they are searching for Shorten, who is charged with a third-degree felony that could land him in prison for 10 years.
“You can’t just go around lying and deceiving people at will,” Tammie said. ABC13 in an interview in which he decided not to show his face.
“I told him, ‘Before everyone knows what you’re doing, make sure your business is right,'” she continued, embarrassed by the attention.
‘It’s not that you don’t know what a divorce is because you’ve been married several times before.
“They made a fool of me,” he concluded.
According to the now-uncovered record, Shorten and his last wife married in January, after Tammie said she confronted her ex-boyfriend with the fact that he knew about her upcoming wedding.
She reportedly reminded him that they were still married, but he went ahead with the bigamous nuptials anyway, it is alleged.
ABC13 also obtained that marriage license and shared an image of it in their report.
Shorten’s family social media posts from this time show them celebrating the nuptials, with his sister Monica Shorten writing over a reel overlaid with wedding photos: “Congratulations to my only big brother.”
In a phone call with one of the outlet’s journalists, Shorten denied being married to anyone and said he was unaware of the bigamy charge, which is rare.
ABC13 also obtained that marriage license and shared an image of it in its Wednesday report.
“You can’t just go around lying and deceiving people at will,” Tammie told ABC13 in an interview in which she chose not to show her face.
“It’s not that you don’t know what a divorce is because you’ve been married several times before,” she added.
However, it is a third-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of ten years not only in Texas, but also in the rest of the country.
“They made a fool of me,” she concluded, sharing photos of herself and her ex-husband. Police said he has at least two wives, but there could be more.
However, bigamy is a third-degree crime that carries a maximum sentence of ten years not only in Texas, but also in the rest of the country.
Bigamy is defined as the act of undergoing a marriage ceremony with one person while legally married to another; it should not be confused with polygamy.
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse at a time, meaning one must engage in bigamy to experience polygamy.
Both are considered crimes, and Texas bigamy law gives police the right to arrest someone they believe married someone while they are still married to someone else.
In addition to prison, Shorten could face a fine of up to $10,000 under state law.