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Defense asks for Trumbull murder trial to be moved to another county
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Attorneys for David Martin, 29, of Cleveland, who will go on trial starting Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in a purported execution-style homicide, has asked that the trial be moved to another county.
Martin, charged with killing Jeremy Cole, 21, of Warren and shooting at the back of the head of Melissa Putnam, 27, of Warren at a house on Oak Street Southwest on Sept. 27, 2012, could get the death penalty if he is convicted of certain charges and certain aggravating circumstances.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday and is expected to take a week or more. Testimony is likely to begin the week of Sept. 8.
But Martin’s attorneys have filed a request with Judge Andrew Logan, who is presiding over the case, asking the trial be moved to another county “because extensive and ongoing pretrial publicity makes it presumptively impossible to seat an impartial jury in this county.”
The filing lists two newspapers, including The Vindicator, as well as four Mahoning Valley television stations and two Cleveland television stations that have printed or broadcast coverage of Martin’s arrest, court hearings and other events.
Besides coverage of Martin’s arrest, there has been coverage of statements Martin is purported to have made to a county corrections officer regarding his intention to take the firearm of a county deputy sheriff guarding him during his trial, saying, “I’m not going to death row.”
There also was local and national coverage of a five-hour hostage-taking of a county jail corrections officer in April that ended peacefully. Authorities say Martin was one of three inmates who participated in the incident.
The filing refers to the April 23 edition of Time magazine and broadcasts from Cleveland’s Fox 8 and WOIO that mention the incident.
One representative of WOIO of Cleveland has been issued a subpoena to testify at the trial, apparently regarding the interview Martin is reported to have given to a reporter while the purported hostage-taking was in progress.
Authorities say Martin was able to make the call from the cellphone belonging to the corrections officer who was taken hostage.
Judge Logan is expected to rule on whether to move the trial sometime after jury selection begins.
One of the things potential jurors are asked during jury selection is how much news coverage they have listened to or read about the case.
Those who know about the case are then typically asked whether that coverage has caused them to form an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the person on trial.
Putnam has said she survived being shot to the back of her head because she put her hand up to the back of her head just as Martin fired and thinks her hand prevented the gunshot from entering her skull.
She is expected to testify at the trial, along with law- enforcement officers who arrested Martin at a Tallmadge apartment and Warren police, who investigated the crimes.