A federal jury Friday found a man guilty of stalking his ex-wife and two daughters from New Mexico to Oregon after they had moved, changed their names, obtained protective orders and guns and alerted the FBI due to his past physical abuse and kidnapping of the children to the Mexico border in 2014.

Oscar Adrian Marquez, 46, also was convicted of cyberstalking and three counts of interstate violation of a protective order after a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman.

This case is about power and control. The defendants long, long effort to exercise control and manipulation and power over his ex-wife, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Ratcliffe told jurors. Today, the power is in your hands. You are in control when you go back to deliberate.

When Jennifer Lorraine ended the couples failed marriage, which was marked by physical and emotional abuse, she said her fear of Marquez didnt subside. Lorraine and her two daughters lived in a state of constant fear that Marquez would find and harm them, and took the appropriate measures to try to keep safe, prosecutors said. Yet, even though they traveled more than 1,000 miles to get away from Marquez and start a new life, it was not enough, fellow prosecutor Ashely R. Cadotte said.

Defense lawyer Noel Grefenson told the jury three times that Marquez is no angel, but said he wasnt the man that the government is making him out to be.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours before returning its verdict.

Marquez, his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law were among those who took the witness stand.

Prosecutors also played a song that Marquez had recorded called I only need one bullet, describing how he needed only one bullet to settle the score after complaining how you took my kids, my money my life, when you walked out that door.

Marquezs lawyer urged jurors to disregard the song, written while Marquez was in custody years ago for custodial interference. Marquez suggested when he took the witness stand at trial that the single bullet was for himself to end all my misery, yet he said he was never suicidal.

During his direct testimony, Marquez blamed his ex-wifes hormonal change for the problems in their marriage.

I want to say it was because of hormonal change because of the kids that we had, he testified. When it got bad, it got bad, got physical a few times, but it wasnt like we were beating each other.

Marquezs ex-wife testified that their marriage ended in 2014 after 13 years due to mental, emotional and physical abuse. She filed for a protective order in New Mexico in June 2014, which initially allowed Marquez to have supervised visits with their two daughters with his mother.

Later that summer, Marquez suddenly took off with the girls in the middle of the night, prompting an Amber Alert.

Lorraine said she was absolutely terrified when she received a call from her mother-in-law between 1 and 2 a.m. that her girls were gone. I didnt know where my girls were. I didnt know if they were safe. I didnt know what would happen to them, she said.

They werent found until several days later at the Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, where Lorraine drove to pick them up once theyd been located and Marquez was taken into custody.

Marquez was then convicted of custodial interference and his ex-wife altered a protective order to prevent Marquez from contacting their children.

Lorraine moved to Oregon in 2017 as a safety precaution.

She changed her familys last name, contacted the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center to keep their Portland address confidential and registered her protective order in Oregon courts. She also got a guard dog, mace, a Taser, guns, an alarm and camera system at her home, along with a silent 911 button installed in her home.

By March 2018, Marquez called Lorraine and left a voicemail. She blocked his number. He called from a different number. She blocked that one as well.

In July 2018, Lorraines mother, who had received threatening, muffled calls from Marquez, discovered a note written on the back of unopened mail, stuck on the front gate of her home in New Mexico with a sticker from Marquezs tattoo shop.

Tell your (expletive) daughter Im on my way to find her, the note read.

Lorraines mother sent a photo of the note to her daughter.

Nearly a year later, on June 16, 2019, Marquez posted a screen shot to a Facebook group of the Amber Alert flyer from his 2014 kidnapping of his daughters with the caption: The day I died and became your devil.

A month later, on July 16, 2019, Marquez posted his ex-wifes new name and home address in Portland on social media. A friend of Lorraines spotted it and alerted her.

Now that he knew where she lived, Lorraine said she worried Marquez would show up at her home.

About 11 a.m. on July 29, 2019, Lorraine was having coffee, sitting on the edge of her bed when she spotted a car on the street in front of her home.

All of a sudden a car started creeping very slowly by the front of my house, Lorraine testified. It immediately caught her attention, she said, recognizing the Nissan Xterra as the type of vehicle Marquez had.

It returned for another drive-by and Lorraine saw Marquez in the drivers seat, his arm leaning out the window and looking back at her residence and the cars parked outside as it passed.

Lorraines mother, who happened to be visiting with her daughter in Oregon and was downstairs, suddenly heard a terrifying scream come from her daughter, followed by her yelling, Oscars here! Hes here Mom! Hes here!

As Lorraine called 911, her mother found her two granddaughters upstairs and urged them to stay in their rooms, be quiet and instructed them to run to special hiding places if their father came inside.

We were all going to just be very quiet. Maybe he would go away, Victoria Boykin testified. In the event, he breached the front door and entered the home if he did cross in (beyond the staircase) wed start shooting until there were not bullets left in our firearms.

A Portland police car arrived and Marquez drove by a third time. Police moved in and arrested him. Inside the car police found dark gloves and a black mask in the drivers door panel and a replica BB gun under the drivers seat.

Marquez denied he wanted to threaten anybody, said he didnt remember passing by Lorraines home, that he had gone to a dispensary that day in the area to get some weed and was in Portland because he was thinking of starting a tattoo shop in the city.

We will never know what he would have done on his third pass by the house because the Portland Police Bureau got in the way and took him into custody, Ratcliffe told jurors.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

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New Mexico man who tracked ex-wife, kids to Portland and made online threats found guilty of stalking - OregonLive