Killer apologizes to victim’s family

Jeremy Reddick asked the judge’s permission to speak to the family of the man he murdered.

He turned in the prisoner’s box toward Dakoda Martin’s heartbroken parents and siblings.

Not there was Martin’s daughter, almost 5, who often asks why her “daddy” isn’t coming home, relatives told Superior Court Justice Helen Rady. “I’m sorry,” said Reddick, the 34-year-old Londoner convicted in September of second-degree murder for stabbing Martin to death in Victoria Park. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry I brought so much pain and loss to your family.

“I didn’t mean to kill Dakoda.” While Reddick may think that was the case on May 28, 2016, the jury didn’t buy it. He brought a knife to a fist fight; the consequences were deadly.

But, as defence lawyer Aaron Prevost noted at Reddick’s sentencing Friday, that may have been part of Reddick’s self-preservation instinct after a hard life in foster care and on the streets. Reddick was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 14 years. Simultaneously, he will serve 18 months for assault with a weapon for wounding Martin’s pal, Andre Williams.

They were all part of a group partying in the downtown park after hours. The happy mood turned deadly after a fight broke out between Reddick and the two other, smaller men.

Martin was stabbed several times.

The fatal wound was inflicted when he was on the ground, with Reddick on the attack. As Middlesex County Crown attorney Joe Perfetto said, Martin’s death not only shattered the lives of his family, but also transformed them.

They are sad and angry. They have struggled in relationships. They don’t sleep. They think about Martin, how he died, and miss how he lived.

His fiancee, Jessica Schilds, wrote in her victim-impact statement that she and Martin’s daughter are changed forever.

“I truly hope the guilt of ripping a family apart affects you (Reddick) for the rest of your life ... I don’t know if we will ever be able to fully heal from the loss,” she wrote. His sister, Tawnya Martin- Goad, said the pain hits her as “the last thought of the night, first thought each day.”

“A true man would have walked away,” she said to Reddick.