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Former baseball player Brandon Willie Martin was found guilty in the murders of three men including his own father Michael Martin, his maternal uncle Ricky Andersen, and Barry Swanson.
According to authorities said, Martin, who was the former player for the Tampa Bay Rays, beat his victims using a baseball bat, at the Martin home in Riverside, California. It was also declared that Swanson, an ADT alarm company technician, was in Martin’s home because he was installing an alarm at the request of his family who wanted to be protected from their son.
The penalty phase of the trial was held on November 2, at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Even though he denied all of the accusations regarding the deaths, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced the jury found Martin guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. The jury further convicted him of auto theft, evading arrest, obstructing a peace officer, plus injuring a police canine.
As for Martin’s attorneys defended him by describing the murders as a “tragic situation involving a mentally ill individual.” According to ABC 7 News, the former player “was experiencing unspecified psychiatric issues,” so much so that, he had been released from an emergency mental health facility shortly before the murders.
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