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Condemned Warren murderer convinced sister to call juror
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
David Martin was unsuccessful at persuading any of the 12 jurors in his murder trial last month to spare his life, even while making a personal appeal to them, saying: “All I ask is that you do what is in your hearts.”
The jury recommended the death penalty, and Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court affirmed the recommendation.
But Martin did succeed by telephone from the Mahoning County Adult Justice Center in persuading his sister, Tamika Martin, to make a call Sept. 8 to one of the jurors to tell her: “They’re trying to make my brother out to be bad, but he don’t deserve to die. Please don’t sign that verdict for death.”
That is called jury tampering, and when jail officials reported it to Judge Logan, the juror receiving the call was dismissed from the case, and an alternate took her place.
A recording of the call was made available to The Vindicator on Tuesday after a public-records request.
Martin called his sister three times between 5:15 p.m. and 5:59 p.m., for a total of 36 minutes. One of the first things he did was give Tamika a phone number he had seen on a juror questionnaire and instructed his sister to call that number to talk to the juror.
“I only need one juror to ... vote against death for me to still live. If one don’t sign, I keep my life,” Martin told Tamika of the reason for the call.
He asked Tamika to take a subtle approach, not to be threatening. “Just say I need to talk to you about somebody” and tell her she was calling from West Virginia, and “Please don’t hang up.” Tamika was supposed to tell the woman not to tell the judge about the call, and not tell the juror that Martin had instigated the call.
“Say, ‘That’s my little brother. This was a drug-related crime,’” Martin said.
In Martin’s statement to jurors a few days later, he also brought up the drug angle, saying: “Drugs really do take lives. Drugs was a big part of it and led to the incident.”
One of Martin’s victims, Melissa Putnam, admitted on the witness stand that she had sold Martin marijuana on several occasions and smoked it with Martin and Jeremy Cole the day Martin killed Cole with a close-range gunshot to the face and injured Putnam with a shot through her hand and into the skin at the back of her head.
Martin described the juror involved as a young black woman, saying he hoped she’d be sympathetic to him because they are the same race.
Eventually, Tamika dialed the number on a second phone and apparently talked to the woman while also listening to Martin’s instructions on what to say.
“I’m Tamika and I’m from Bluefield, W.Va.,” Tamika can be heard saying. “I need to talk to you, and please don’t hang up,” she told the juror. “It was a drug deal gone wrong.”
After a minute or two, the juror hung up, apparently without saying anything in reply. Tamika told Martin a woman could be heard in the background advising the juror that no one is supposed to call her about the trial.
After the juror hung up, Martin told Tamika to “text that little b---- and tell her what’s going on.”
Martin made the call to Tamika just after he got back to the Mahoning County jail the day Putnam, 28, gave compelling testimony about Martin, 28, ordering her to tie up Cole, 21, and then hearing the shot that killed Cole, then seeing Martin come into the room where she was tied up and Martin shooting her. It occurred Sept. 27, 2012, at Putnam’s Oak Street Southwest home.
Martin expressed concern to Tamika that the jury might choose the death penalty. “It’s a close ... call,” he said, adding, “I know you want me out of this death-sentence thing.”
In a later call that involved a conversation with another person, Martin attempted to provide some details of what went on in court that day.
“The girl I shot in the head was on the stand today,” he said after trying a couple of times to be understood over the poor phone connection.
At one point, Martin indicated he was aware that phone calls from the jail are recorded but wasn’t too concerned about it.
Jerry Greene, Mahoning County sheriff, said a corrections officer noticed that Martin was “acting strangely” while he was on the phone, so the deputy listened in on the conversation. Martin was housed in the Mahoning County jail for about six months because he was accused of being one of three inmates who took a corrections officer hostage for about a five hours in the Trumbull County jail in April.
Judge Logan said no telephone numbers were supposed to be on the jury questionnaires provided to Martin’s defense team, that it was left on the form in error.
Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said he had no comment on whether the prosecutor’s office will pursue criminal charges against Martin’s sister.