Joliet Killer Martell Ollie Sentenced On 2nd Degree Murder Charge

JOLIET, IL — After spending the past two-and-a-half years in the Will County Jail, Joliet resident Martell Ollie pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. Under the terms of the plea bargain, Ollie received a 13-year prison sentence for killing 24-year-old Romeoville resident Donald Woods Jr. on Joliet's southeast side during the late afternoon of May 15, 2018.

Joliet police arrested Ollie, who lived in the 200 block of Nicholson Street, three days later. Woods died in the 200 block of Joliet's Fourth Avenue near Sherman Street.

Even though Ollie was given a 13-year prison term, he will not be spending the next 13 years of his life in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

He will serve the 13-year sentence at 50 percent. Also, Ollie gets good time credit for the 907 days he has already spent in the Will County Jail awaiting trial.

A third aspect of the plea deal is that Ollie's four pending drug cases were resolved with guilty pleas, and those convictions will be served at the same time of his second-degree murder offense.

Joliet criminal defense attorney Chuck Bretz told Joliet Patch that he anticipates Ollie will serve the next four years in prison.

If that holds true, Ollie, now 26, will be back in Joliet when he is 30 years old.

Bretz said he was pleased with Monday's plea agreement with the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow.

Bretz said his client always insisted that he killed Donald Woods Jr. out of self-defense.

"It was very clear that the decedent also had a gun on him and fired that weapon at least once before he was shot by the defendant," Bretz told Joliet Patch.

Bretz said there were several people around when Woods was killed. However, only Woods' brother, Dohndray D. Woods, now 22, had identified Ollie as the aggressor in the deadly shooting. Woods planned to be one of the key witnesses for Will County prosecutors if Ollie's first-degree murder trial went forward later this month.

Then, on Oct. 14, a 24-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were shot in Crest Hill outside the Woodlands apartments. Days later, Crest Hill police arrested Dohndray Woods on attempted murder charges and his bail is set at $2 million. Woods lives in the Ingalls Park area of Joliet.

The attempted murder charges against Woods left the prosecution without any additional witnesses to finger Ollie as being the aggressor in the deadly shooting, Bretz said.

"In my mind, (the plea) was a very fair resolution. The state was left in a position where their main witness in a first-degree murder was just arrested for attempted murder," Bretz said.