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Prosecutors ask to use prior bad acts in Brooks case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Papers filed in court Monday say the man who pleaded guilty to the September 2010 murder of real-estate agent Vivian Martin taunted her and also another Realtor in a similar robbery five days earlier in Boardman.
Prosecutors said in the papers that in the Boardman incident, the real-estate agent was not harmed.
On the day Martin, 67, owner of Essence Realty, was killed, however, the papers said co-defendant Grant Cooper tried to choke Martin and when he told Robert Brooks he couldn’t do it, Brooks told him to exert more force as he poured gasoline on the floor around her inside a home she was showing in the 3100 block of Nelson Avenue.
Several minutes later Martin was dead and the house was in flames.
Brooks, 29, pleaded guilty Friday, the day jury selection was to begin in his case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Visiting Judge Lee Sinclair.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated arson and kidnapping for Martin’s death on Sept. 20, 2010; and a count of aggravated robbery and kidnapping with firearm specifications for the robbery of a real-estate agent in Boardman on Sept. 15, 2010, with firearm specifications.
Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of life in prison. Sentencing is set for Oct. 1.
Cooper struck a plea bargain July 31 and prosecutors are recommending a 29-year sentence in his case. His sentencing is set for Oct. 2.
In their papers, prosecutors said on Sept. 15, 2010, Brooks and his brother, Paul Brooks, arranged to see some apartment buildings at 4000 Hillman Way in Boardman with a real-estate agent.
Once inside, Robert Brooks put the agent in a chokehold and pulled a knife and gun and demanded her purse and keys. The men threatened to kill her and the motion said he “teased and tormented” her, and threatened to kill her family if she called police.
They told her to wait five minutes after they left before leaving, which she did. She first called her husband, who then contacted police, the papers said.
On Sept. 19, 2010, Brooks tried to go to two more open houses, but because an advisory had been put out after the robbery of the Boardman real-estate agent, both Realtors refused to go inside alone with Brooks and his brother, the motion said.
Paul Brooks pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification in January 2013 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
On the day of Martin’s death, they met her at the home. Cooper put Martin in a chokehold and they demanded her cellphone and keys.
The two also took duct tape and gas inside the house with them, the motion said.
Once again, Cooper put her in a chokehold, and she fell to the ground and while on the ground, Brooks pours gasoline on the floor and teases her, reports said.
Prosecutors said the prior acts show proof of a scheme by Brooks to commit robberies and also shows the way he committed the crimes is the same.
Brooks and Cooper were indicted Oct. 13, 2010, for Martin’s death, but the case was delayed for nearly four years.