Former Minor League Rays' Player To Stand Trial In Baseball Bat Beating Deaths

By SUSAN C. SCHENA (Patch Staff)

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA - A former shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays' minor league team accused of fatally beating his father, uncle and a bystander inside a Corona home last year must stand trial on three counts of first-degree murder, a judge ruled today.

Brandon Willie Martin, 22, allegedly used a baseball bat to kill the victims on the evening of Sept. 17.

Following a preliminary hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher found there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial on the murder counts as well as charges of evading arrest, obstructing a peace officer and injuring a police canine.

The defendant also faces a special circumstance allegation of taking multiple lives in the same crime, which makes him eligible for a potential death sentence if convicted. The district attorney has yet to decide whether to seek capital punishment.

Fisher scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for April 8.

Martin is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

According to evidence presented during today's hearing, the defendant had been experiencing unspecified psychiatric issues and was admitted to the Riverside County Department of Mental Health's emergency treatment facility on County Farm Road on Sept. 15 for an evaluation. His admission came after he'd allegedly made threats of physical injury against his father, 64-year-old Michael Martin.

The defendant was released from the facility two days later, and allegedly went straight to his father's residence in the 1000 block of Winthrop Drive, arriving shortly after 6 p.m.

The elder Martin was at the property with his brother-in-law, 51-year-old Ricky Lee Anderson of Corona, and an ADT alarm company technician, 62-year-old Barry Swanson of Riverside, who was there for an installation consultation, police said. The defendant allegedly grabbed a baseball bat inside the house and went on a rampage, pummeling all three men.

Michael Martin and Swanson died at the scene, but Anderson lingered in a coma for two days before succumbing to his injuries.

After the attack, Brandon Martin allegedly stole Swanson's pickup truck and hid out overnight.

According to Corona police Sgt. Brent Nelson, an off-duty officer spotted the truck in the area of Lincoln and Mountain avenues early the next morning and attempted to stop it, but Martin fled onto Derby Street, dodging
several patrol vehicles whose officers tried to disable the Ford F-150 using PIT maneuvers.

The defendant bailed out of the truck at the intersection of Darby and Buena Vista Avenue, near Foothill Elementary School, and darted into a home, where a woman was taking a shower.

Martin tried to escape by leaping from a second-story window but encountered a K9 officer and his dog, culminating in a brief struggle before he was forcibly taken into custody, according to Nelson. The woman was not injured.

The defendant graduated from Santiago High School in 2011 and was a Major League Baseball draftee that year, picked to play shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays' minor league team. His career spanned two seasons before he dropped out for undisclosed reasons.

Previous: Suspect in Corona Double Homicide in Custody After Pursuit

--Bay City News/Crime scene photo courtesy of OnSceneTV

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