Brent Lawrence first surfaced in Springfield as a Spaulding employee who started dating Lucy Cooper after Lucy was hired as Alan-Michael Spaulding's secretary. Brent initially seemed to be a great guy and Lucy and he had some great fun dates, for a while, even getting arrested for skinny dipping in the Country Club Pool. Unfortunately for most of Springfield, Brent would not remain a nice guy for very long. One night while he was on a date with Lucy, they had a few drinks and seemed to be having a good time. But when a virginal Lucy told Brent that she was reluctant to sleep with him, Brent drugged her with a spiked drink and raped her. Ashamed, Lucy told no one about the rape and when Alan-Michael confessed his love for her, she ran away, making Alan-Michael realize something was wrong. When Brent went to Lucy's apartment and talked about their night together, Lucy yelled that he'd raped her! At this moment, Alan-Michael arrived and beat Brent up! Alan-Michael comforted Lucy and convinced her to tell all of the Coopers and to press charges against Brent when he threatened to rape her again. Meanwhile, it was learned that Alan Spaulding had hired Brent to sabotage Spaulding files so Alan could attempt to take the presidency from his son. After Alan-Michael was forced to step down as president of Spaulding, thanks to Brent's manipulations, he and Lucy exposed Brent by getting him to confess to the rape on tape. Brent then left for Seattle when Frank and Buzz Cooper threatened to take him to the police (an empty threat, since the tape was inadmissible in court). Brent would later reappear and, one day, he threatened Lucy and Alan-Michael with a gun at the docks and demanded to take Lucy with him. Alan-Michael struggled with Brent and then shot him. However, when the police arrived, Brent was nowhere to be found! Later, it was learned Brent was injured when he called Alan-Michael and demanded that Alan-Michael come to see him at the docks. When Alan-Michael arrived, he saw a mortally injured Brent who apologized for what he'd done to Lucy and when Brent's sister, Cassie Lawrence, arrived, Brent apparently died. What Alan-Michael did not know was that Alan later found Brent (Brent and his sister apparently faked his death) alive and paid him and his sister, Cassie, to leave town to avoid a scandal.

Unfortunately, Alan's bribe wouldn't keep Brent out of town for Brent turned out to be more mentally unstable than anyone suspected. Brent soon reappeared, in Springfield, as a woman named Marion Crane and began working at Spaulding Enterprises and even tried to get a room at the Reardon boarding house right next to Lucy Cooper's room. Unfortunately for Brent, he lost out to that room to Marcus Williams. As Marion, Brent stalked Lucy and gained her friendship by claiming to be a rape victim. When Lucy went to group therapy, Marion also attended and was even invited to Alan-Michael's yacht when Alan-Michael and Lucy got engaged. In addition to bugging the yacht, Marion also stabbed and killed Lucky Fowler when Fowler attacked him/her! At this time, Lucy had an HIV test done since she could have been infected at the time Brent raped her. Brent broke in the Cedars lab and manipulated the test and Lucy would learn weeks later that she was infected. Luckily a second test would come back negative. In the meantime, Rebecca Blume (who was actually Reva Shayne Lewis) who was visiting her "sister" Abigail "Abby" Blume saw Brent manipulate Lucy's test. When, Brent saw Rebecca/Reva, he assumed that she'd go to the police, because he wasn't wearing his Marion mask and dress and so he terrorized Rebecca/Reva. Fortunately, since Reva wasn't in town at the time Brent raped Lucy, Brent let her go. But, several future victims were not to be that fortunate!

Though Lucy never suspected that Marion was, in fact, Brent, Buzz's ex-wife, Nadine, accidentally learned the truth when she began snooping around Brent's apartment. Nadine was about to leave town, but had a premonition that Marion was in grave danger. So Brent killed Nadine with a candlestick (exactly as in Nadine's premonition) and threw her body in the lake. Later, while Detective Patrick Cutter was investigating the murder of Lucky Fowler (and assuming it was Marcus Williams who killed Fowler) he allowed himself to be set up on a date with Marion. Brent though slipped up when he had problems with Marion's makeup and dress and so he killed Detective Cutter as Patrick was taking him/her home. When Brent saw Marcus Williams nearby, he decided to made it appear as if Marcus had killed Cutter so that he could get the room at the Reardon boarding house next to Lucy's. Though he succeeded in framing Marcus, Brent didn't get in the room because when Marcus was arrested and then released into his friend, Dinah Marler's custody, the room went to Lucy's new friend, Susan Bates. Shortly after Brent killed Cutter, Brent, as Marion, had a chance to kidnap Lucy and then kill Alan-Michel, but somehow things went awry. When Lucy learned that Marion had no family to spend Thanksgiving with, she invited Marion to spend Thanksgiving with her and Alan-Michael on the yacht. Marion accepted, but planned to kidnap Lucy and hold her hostage when Lucy offered to drive her and Marion in her vehicle. Brent also decided to kill Alan-Michael by puncturing one of his back tires on his car that was parked in the Spaulding garage. Unfortunately when Alan-Michael got in his car to leave, Marion wasn't finished and Alan-Michael ended up running into him/her! Although, Marion insisted she was fine, she had trouble standing up so Lucy and Alan-Michael insisted on taking Marion to the Cedars Emergency Room. When Marion arrived at the ER, the doctor who treated her was Alan-Michael's cousin, Dr. Rick Bauer. Rick didn't recognize Marion as Brent, because Rick wasn't in town when Brent raped Lucy. But Rick did know that Marion was actually a man dressed as a woman. Brent let Rick believe and then perpetuated the lie that Marion was actually a transsexual and due to doctor/patient confidentiality, Rick couldn't tell anyone who Marion really was.