Triple-murder trial for former Rays prospect Brandon Martin scheduled for September
The triple-murder trial for former Tampa Bay Rays prospect Brandon Martin is scheduled to start Sept. 25 in Riverside County Superior Court.
The trial is expected to last at least 60 days, according to court records.
Martin, a supplemental first-round draft pick of the Rays in June 2011, is charged with bludgeoning his father and two other men to death with a baseball bat in September 2015. Martin pleaded not guilty.
During a hearing last week, Judge Michael B. Donner found Martin “has no financial resources whatsoever” and doesn’t have the ability to pay for defense counsel without public assistance.
Martin, once a promising shortstop from Corona Santiago High School who drew comparisons to Derek Jeter, received a $860,000 signing bonus from the Rays in 2011. The team released Martin in 2015.
A recent Times story chronicled Martin’s increasingly erratic behavior in the years after being drafted -- including drug use and attacks on his father, according to court records and interviews with friends.
Two days before the killings, Corona police placed Martin on a mental-health hold at a psychiatric facility in Riverside. Martin admitted to officers he threatened his mother with a pair of scissors during an argument at the family’s home and choked her.
The facility released Martin about six hours before the killings, saying he didn’t meet the criteria for ongoing involuntary detention.
Judge Bambi J. Moyer found Martin mentally competent to stand trial last year. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted.
Martin, 23, is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.
Twitter: @nathanfenno
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