SWORD KILLER DAD TO THE BONE
$2.5M PAY OUT BEHIND CHILLING ATTACK
SKILLED martial arts fighter Michael Martin did not quite kill his father the first time – even with the help of a prostitute – so as soon as the next opportunity arose, he finished the job with a samurai sword.
The court heard it was a plan he had been hatching for months with his wife Candace, who has pleaded guilty to one count of grevious bodily harm and one count of accessory after the fact to murder, and will be sentenced at a date to be set.
Michael Martin had recently “reconnected” with his father, Michael Martin snr, having not seen him for a number of years.
Soon after rekindling the relationship, Michael Martin jnr, 28, called three life insurance companies and took out policies which would see him pocket $2.5 million in the event of his father’s death.
He repeatedly told police he had nothing to do with his father’s murder and after he was arrested he said, “You know I bawled at Dad’s feet … I did not do this”.
But yesterday a jury rejected his denials and found him guilty of his father’s attempted murder and subsequent murder following a seven-week trial at Lismore in NSW’s far north.
During the trial they heard how Martin jnr had tried to kill his father in April 2014 and later said to his wife: “But he was too strong. A pig-headed bastard like me”.
Martin snr was in a coma for several weeks and not long after he was released from hospital Martin jnr lured him back to the Murwillumbah unit where the first bloody attack occurred.
In the early hours of June
13, Martin jnr then hacked his father to death with a samurai sword – one of many weapons he had in his collection as a martial arts fighter.
The sword was never found but police believe he gave it to an accomplice who dumped it for him.
Martin jnr maintained he and his father had both been victims of a vicious and bloody home invasion and told detectives he heard his dad’s throat being cut.
He even tied himself up and lay on the ground outside the unit and screamed for help until a passer-by found him and called triple-0.
Not long after the murder he made an emotional public appeal for help, asking for anyone with information about his father’s death to come forward.
During the trial Martin jnr repeatedly told the jury he had nothing to do with his father’s death and squirmed as he tried to explain the 9-page confession letter he had written his wife explaining the attempted murder and the murder itself.
Police found the letter in his desk at Somerset Regional Council where he worked as a civil engineer.
During the trial Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell argued Martin jnr was referring to the plan to kill his father and cash in on his life insurance when he spoke about a “bright idea”.
Part of the letter penned by Martin jnr to his wife said: “Money got tighter and we had another bright idea to free our lives up more. You and I would finally be able to have the things in life we ever wanted.”
Later he wrote: “25 years of torture from these people led me to do the unthinkable. I let myself lose control and it scared me. Not at what I did but the mere fact that the animal side got the better of me.”
Under cross examination
25 YEARS OF TORTURE FROM THESE PEOPLE LED ME TO DO THE UNTHINKABLE. I LET MYSELF LOSE CONTROL AND IT SCARED ME. NOT AT WHAT I DID BUT THE MERE FACT THAT THE ANIMAL SIDE GOT THE BETTER OF ME MICHAEL MARTIN JNR
from the Crown, Martin jnr said the letter was “not reality” and that psychologists had advised him to express his emotions on paper.
“This is how I express my emotions. I know how it sounds – it sounds terribly like a confession,” Martin jnr said as he sat in the witness box at a sitting of the NSW Supreme Court in Lismore.
In a phone call to OnePath insurance, Martin jnr quizzed the operator about whether the company would still pay the money if there had been a “deliberate act”.
“So that’s not deliberate from someone else, that’s deliberate from you. Is that right?” he asked, pretending to be his father, who had taken the policy out.
Another damning piece of evidence was a Bunnings receipt which showed how Martin jnr purchased all the murder equipment – including disinfectant, gloves and cloth tape – the day before the brutal killing.
The jury also watched several hours of Martin jnr being interviewed by police and watched his reaction when they placed him under arrest.
“Really ... oh f*** off,” he said to homicide detectives in an interview room at Tweed Heads police station.
Moments later he was explaining to police how he had been the victim of a violent home invasion and heard his father being killed by intruders wearing balaclavas.
“I got striked (sic) like hit. I got dragged by the feet out into the kitchen area, that’s where I got bound by tape,” he said in a small interview room at Tweed Heads police station.
“I got told, ‘Shut up or you die’ … and I heard Dad’s throat being cut,” he said.
The jury also were played a triple-0 phone call where they heard a man called Scott Collingwood call for help after finding Martin jnr tied up outside the Quarry Rd unit where he had killed his father.
At one point Mr Collingwood put Martin jnr on the phone and he said to the operator: “Sometime in the night people come in and they grabbed me. I was sleeping. They took me out to the kitchen and then I don’t know what they’ve done to Dad, but he’s dead, he’s friggin’ dead.”
Martin jnr will face a sentencing hearing before Justice Peter Hamill at a later date.