ACCUSED PIMP IS FACING SLAY TRIAL
Chopped-up body of sex trafficking victim, who was allegedly strangled by the suspect, was found in Brooklyn park in 2018
An accused Brooklyn pimp charged with chopping up one of his sex trafficking victims after he schemed to take out life insurance policies under her name is set to face trial in a federal courtroom.
The case against Cory Martin started with a gruesome mystery — the discovery in April 2018 of a young woman’s head and limbless torso in Canarsie Park, facedown and covered with leaves.
A day later, police found garbage bags with her limbs inside. Investigators determined the woman was 26-year-old Brandy Odom, after her sister recognized her distinctive tattoo of the word “Chocolate” on her left breast.
Martin, 36, became a suspect within weeks after cops discovered video of him backing his car into the driveway of his home in Rosedale, Queens, and putting large plastic bags — believed to be holding Odom’s dismembered remains — into the trunk.
But he lawyered up — and he wouldn’t be arrested until November 2020, when federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him and a female roommate with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft relating to the insurance policies.
The roommate, who was accused of taking out $50,000 and $150,000 policies in her name as the sole beneficiary, was initially characterized as Martin’s partner in crime.
But new court filings imply that she was another of his victims, and that he brutalized and threatened her to get her to go along with the plot. The Daily News is not naming her in this story because she is an alleged sexual assault victim.
She took a plea deal in September 2021, and a month later Martin was indicted on new charges including murder-for-hire because he sought to make money from the insurance policies, prosecutors allege.
Jury selection has begun in Martin’s Brooklyn Federal Court trial, with opening arguments slated for Tuesday.
Based on court filings, the roommate will likely testify as a central witness against Martin. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have been wrangling in a series of motions over the expected testimony of a woman described as Martin’s co-conspirator and dubbed “CW-1.”
Those motions don’t name the co-conspirator, but they describe her involvement
in the alleged crime — and those details match up with the allegations the roommate initially faced. Her lawyer declined to comment when contacted by The News.
Odom, the roommate and Martin all lived together in Rosedale, where Martin used violence and drugs to keep the two women under his thumb, according to a January motion by federal prosecutors.
Martin set their rates, took Odom to nightclubs to look for customers, and lurked in a closet when the women met with clients, the feds allege.
He made them call him “Daddy,” forbade them from wearing clothing inside the home, and controlled when they showered or bathed, and what they ate, prosecutors allege. Neither woman was allowed to look at another man’s face without his permission, according to the feds.
“On one occasion in 2017, CW-1 hid money from the defendant in order to buy a birthday present for her son. When the defendant found the money, he handcuffed CW-1 and raped her with a hammer,” prosecutors allege. In another episode, he slammed the co-conspirator’s leg into a refrigerator, fracturing her leg, then made her lie at the hospital about what happened, the feds said.
He hatched the life insurance plot in early 2017, but he had a different victim in mind — he wanted to take out policies against the roommate’s young son and the child’s father, then murder them both, the feds allege. She refused, so he’s accused of setting his sights on Odom instead.
Martin and the roommate secured the policies in late 2017, but they argued about killing Odom on Jan. 27, 2018, and Martin responded with violence. According to the feds, he slammed the roommate’s head into a wall, pulled a knife on her, and threatened to kill her and her son, saying he’d “slit her throat.”
That led to Martin’s arrest on domestic violence assault charges, though he was later released.
Martin waited until April 2018 to kill Odom, when the roommate left the house to stay with her mother, according to the feds.
In an October 2020 interview with investigators, the roommate described how Odom died — Martin strangled her and cut her up with a saw, the feds said. She said she then helped him dispose of the body parts.
Martin’s lawyer did not return messages seeking comment.