Double murderer gets life in prison
A 20-year-old Spokane man faces life in prison with no possibility of parole after he was convicted Monday of killing two men and trying to kill a third in a rampage at a Mead home in 2003.
Brandon W. Martin also faces trial July 25 for allegedly helping strangle a man in the Spokane County Jail while awaiting the double-murder trial.
Superior Court Judge Robert Austin didn’t set a sentencing date in the murder conviction, but sentencing will be just a formality. The jury found the crime was aggravated because there were multiple victims, so state law requires a life sentence without parole.
Even without the finding of aggravation, Martin would have little chance of ever getting out of prison. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder – all with a firearm – and of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
The first three counts carry consecutive sentences, each padded by a five-year firearm enhancement for which no credit can be earned for good behavior.
The jury deliberated about 2 1/2 hours Friday and all morning Monday before reaching its verdict.
The question was not whether Martin shot Donald W. Corey and Thomas N. Morris to death and tried to kill Ross G. Baulne; Martin’s attorney, Public Defender John Rodgers, conceded Martin was the killer but argued he was insane at the time.
The “diminished-capacity” defense was supported by Spokane psychologist E. Clay Jorgensen and Seattle psychiatrist Steven Juergens.
Testimony by the doctors and witnesses who saw what happened indicated Martin was psychotic at the time, with “loose, illogical, impaired thinking,” Rodgers said in his closing argument.
Jack Driscoll, Spokane County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, presented conflicting testimony from two Eastern State Hospital doctors, psychiatrist William Grant and psychologist Trevor Travers.
Martin just made bad choices, Driscoll argued, citing the behavior Rodgers found irrational.
One thing everyone agreed on is that Martin was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal threshold for drunken driving, and that he had been abusing other drugs when he opened fire on his victims.
No matter, Driscoll told jurors: “The law doesn’t give someone a free pass when they choose to drink, when they do drugs or when they have some mental issues.”
Martin was angry when he left a teenage drinking party at Baulne’s home in the Mead Royale mobile home park and returned with a .44-caliber lever-action rifle. Testimony indicated Martin thought someone stole his marijuana pipe and that Baulne broke Martin’s car window to try to keep him from leaving in a rage.
A witness said Martin commented while arming himself that he was going to do something that would send him to prison. Then Martin returned to the party, broke down Baulne’s front door and immediately shot Morris to death. Next he chased down and killed Corey.
Martin took a shot at Baulne and missed when Baulne rushed toward him. Witnesses said Martin chambered another round, but Baulne and another young man overpowered him before he could fire again.
Martin had been in jail a year, awaiting trial, when he allegedly participated in the murder of cellmate Christopher Lee Rentz, 21. Martin is charged with second-degree murder in the strangulation, and his other cellmate, 28-year-old Michael Lee West Jr., is charged with first-degree murder.
Both defendants are to be tried in July.