ABC 7 reports that a biracial ex-baseball player who allegedly “hated that he was Black” was found guilty in a triple homicide that included his Black father’s death.
Brandon Willie Martin, who played for the Tampa Bay Rays, went to Corona, California, in September of 2015, where he attacked and instantly killed his father, Michael Martin, with a baseball bat. He then went on to kill Barry Swanson, the ADT alarm installer, who was setting up the security system that was intended to keep his son out of the father’s home. The fathers’ brother-in-law Ricky Lee Anderson was also beat to death for attempting to stop the attack.
That following morning, Martin was seen driving Swanson’s pick-up truck, but when officers tried to detain him, he ran and escaped into a women’s home where he was later arrested.
Last week, the Riverside jury convicted the former minor league baseball player of three counts of first-degree murder, auto theft, evading arrest, obstructing a police officer, and injuring a police canine. Martin could face the death penalty, which his attorney Edward Welbourn opposes due to him struggling with mental illness.
Court documents say that Martin reportedly “hated that he was Black” and had a “racially charged” dislike for his father, who he often used racial slurs against. In 2014, he got away with punching his father multiple times in his head because the officer didn’t want an arrest to taint his career. In another instance, the ex-baseball player choked his mother and held scissors against her neck.
Previously, he was admitted to the Department of Mental Health’s emergency treatment facility after threatening his father. The victims’ families are now suing Riverside County for negligence, claiming he was released too soon.
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