Investigator details Illinois sheriff's alleged murder plot

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. -- A sheriff jailed and awaiting trial on federal charges he sold marijuana while on duty offered two cellmates as much as $17,000 to kill potential witnesses against him -- even supplying a detailed map to the targets' homes, an investigator testified Tuesday.

The plot, in which local prosecutors say Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin enlisted help from his wife and son, unraveled when the second of the two would-be hit men got cold feet and reported the plot to authorities, then cooperated with them, Jackson County sheriff's investigator Michael Ryan said.

Neither of the potential key witnesses against Martin in the federal case were injured.

Ryan's testimony came during a preliminary hearing for Martin's wife, Kristina Martin, who is charged in the murder-for-hire scheme with her husband and stepson, 20-year-old Cody Martin. The younger Martin waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his bond was reduced from $1 million to $100,000.

Judge Kimberly Dahlen also ruled there was sufficient evidence for Kristina Martin to stand trial.

A similar hearing for Raymond Martin was postponed after he told the judge he still hadn't hired an attorney. He remained jailed on $1 million bond.

Raymond Martin remains sheriff, although one of his deputies has been named interim sheriff and his seat is up for election this year. Gallatin County's governing board sent Martin a letter earlier this month urging him to resign.

Federal agents arrested Martin last year on charges he trafficked marijuana as sheriff, allegedly supplying a drug dealer and then threatening to kill him when the man said he wanted out. At least twice, according to an affidavit by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Glenn Rountree, Martin pulled his service revolver to press the point that making the dealer "disappear" would be "that easy."

Martin has pleaded not guilty to the drug charges.

According to Ryan, Martin was jailed on those charges Dec. 29 when a former prisoner, Thomas Hayden, told investigators Martin approached him and asked him to kill two people in Gallatin County, placing a $5,000 bounty on each victim.

Pressing his association with Mexican drug runners, Martin promised Hayden a $1,000-a-day job in the drug operation, warning of execution by the Mexicans if he "messed up," Ryan testified.

A map Ryan said Hayden got from Martin was found in Hayden's coat pocket, detailing the locations of the homes of the two witnesses Martin allegedly wanted dead.

Ryan said Kristina Martin worked as an intermediary, arranging contact with Hayden. In one conversation, Ryan testified, Kristina Martin asked Hayden whether he had found the "two spots" -- the targeted witnesses' homes.

Hayden's insistence on some payment in advance of the would-be assassinations went nowhere, with the jailed sheriff telling Kristina Martin in a recorded telephone conversation "we've been down that road before."

Ryan suggested that referred to Martin's alleged efforts months earlier to hire Kevin Brown, another former jail cellmate of Martin, to gun down the witnesses. On Jan. 1, after Brown's girlfriend reported a domestic dispute along with a tip that her boyfriend had been approached in a murder-for-hire plot, Brown told authorities Martin had offered him $17,000 to kill one of the witnesses with a shot to the chest from a large-caliber handgun.

Brown said he was given a map to that would-be victim's home, Ryan testified. On the day he was released from jail last October, Ryan said, Brown followed Martin's directions and sought out a yellow-shirted man at a McDonald's across from the courthouse. Ryan said the man -- Cody Martin -- handed Brown an envelope with $1,000 in $100 bills as a down payment.

Ryan testified Cody Martin has told investigators that Kristina Martin, his stepmother, was the one who supplied the cash, wearing blue latex gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. Cody also wore gloves in putting the money in the envelope Brown received, Ryan said.

Brown said he later backed out of the plot and tossed away the map Martin had given him, Ryan said.

Under questioning Tuesday by Kristina Martin's attorney, Paul Christenson, Ryan acknowledged Cody Martin's relationship with his accused stepmother had been strained -- and that the recorded conversations supposedly implicating Kristina Martin consistently show she had no clue about the alleged plot.

Authorities said Ryan later seized $19,000 in cash from a safe from Kristina Martin's former workplace, suggesting it may have been the money that would have paid the hit men.

But Christenson countered the cash coincided with the family's discussions about buying a new car for a client's son.

Christenson later told reporters Kristina Martin had nothing to do with the scheme.

"There may be something going on -- she's not involved," he said. "She was being duped not only by her husband, but by her stepson as well."