|
|
|
|
Maryland Man Gets Life
Sentence in Plot to Kill Pregnant Girlfriend Who Refused
Abortion Part One of Three By Dave Andrusko Good afternoon. Only three more sleeps till Christmas. Part Two is actually part one of a three-part series by NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz. Part Three alerts you to a wonderful educational asset. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), Cong. Chris Smith alerts pro-lifers to a "brilliant, incisive, extraordinarily well written defense of the child in the womb." Amanda McClone offers timeless advice to pro-life students in the university setting, while MCCL offers a wonderful primer on how to argue the case for life. Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. On Tuesday Judge Pamela L. North sentenced Charles Brandon Martin to a life sentence for trying to kill his pregnant girlfriend who refused to have an abortion in 2008. Martin's sentence was longer than state guidelines because of his involvement in a second attempted murder.
Torok told the Baltimore Sun, "I got my early Christmas present." According to the Sun, prosecutors described Martin as a ruthless would-be killer, who was involved in two attempted murders. Evidence for the second was a letter Martin sent after he was convinced in the October 2008 shooting of Torok that "sought to have the man [Jerold Raymond Burks] acquitted of being the triggerman killed. Jail officials intercepted the letter and gave it to prosecutors," according to the Sun's Andrea F. Siegel. It was that letter that prosecutors offered "as evidence that the judge should sentence Martin to life instead of a shorter term within state guidelines," Siegel reported. Prosecutors alleged Burks, shot Torok to work off a drug debt he owed to Martin. But a jury found Burks not guilty. "A different jury convicted Martin of attempted murder and related charges in May but not of soliciting the crime," Siegel reported. At the time of the shooting, Torok had no idea Martin was married. (According to the Sun he has four children with his wife, two outside his marriage, and multiple girlfriends). According to allegations made at the trial, when Torok told him she was pregnant, he wanted her to abort. She refused. "One afternoon, she answered her door to a person who shot her with a gun that had a silencer made out of a Gatorade bottle, according to trial testimony. DNA from the bottle pointed to Martin to the exclusion of 99 percent of the world population, an expert testified," Siegel reported. "As Torok clung to life, the baby was aborted," Siegel wrote. "In a written statement, Torok said she fears that 'someone will come after me to finish what was done' and that the assault has been an emotional and financial blow to her family, with whom she lives in Pennsylvania." Torok is in a wheelchair and receives extensive physical and occupational therapy. "My main focus right now is on getting up and walking, whether it be with a walker or with canes," she told the Sun. Anastasia Prigge, an assistant Anne Arundel County state's attorney, prosecuted the case. In asking for the maximum sentence for Martin, she told Judge North, "He's a very dangerous man." |
Before
sentencing the 33-year-old Martin, in a reference to Jodi Torok
and her unborn child, Judge North said, "I believe you were
willing to snuff both of them out because they were an
inconvenience to you."