WAYNESBURG - Jeffrey Robert Martin has been condemned to die for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl from Greensboro.
At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, President Judge H. Terry Grimes followed a jury's recommendation and sentenced Martin, 51, of New Geneva, to death. Martin will go to State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh to be processed into the state prison system.
Grimes also determined that Martin is a sexually violent predator after an accompanying Megan's Law hearing, in which Martin's daughter testified that her father molested her when she was 6.
Martin already seemed to be clamoring to exercise his rights through the appeals process. After the sentencing hearing, he asked Grimes if the judge could expedite the process by denying his appeal immediately. Grimes explained that the appeal will be automatic, since the state Supreme Court examines all cases involving the death penalty.
"He certainly intends to pursue his appeal," Martin's attorney, Public Defender Harry Cancelmi, told reporters after the hearing. "I believe he wants another court to review (the case)."
Martin raped and strangled Gabrielle Miranda Bechen on June 13, 2006, when she left her house to visit a nearby horse farm where Martin worked as a farmhand. He then buried her body and hid her all-terrain vehicle from the hundreds of searchers who combed the woods of Dunkard Township for five days, looking for the girl.
In May, after a six-day trial, a jury convicted Martin of all charges, and the panel recommended that he be put to death for murder.
Grimes had to follow the jury's recommendation, but he also sentenced Martin to 23 to 46 years in prison for the crimes other than first-degree murder. In addition to first-degree murder, Martin was convicted of aggravated assault, rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, abuse of a corpse and four counts of tampering with evidence.
"Given the heinous and despicable nature of these crimes, the sentence will be at the higher end of the standard range," Grimes said, referring to the state's sentencing guidelines for criminal offenses.
"We're very pleased to have it completed. I can't say we're happy to start the appeals process, but the finality of it now is wonderful," said First Assistant District Attorney Linda Chambers. She credited the police officers and others involved with the case, particularly Trooper Thomas Schuster and Cpl. William Barnhart of the state police.
During the Megan's Law hearing, Martin's daughter, Jennifer Martin, 25, of Greensburg, testified that her father sexually molested her when she was 6. Jeffrey Martin was charged with indecent assault in the 1989 or 1990 incident, but the case was dropped because Jennifer Martin said she couldn't testify at the trial.
Cancelmi noted that Jennifer Martin did not have difficulty talking about the incident in front of television news cameras several months ago, and he asked why she couldn't testify about it 18 years ago.
"I was six," the young woman replied. "He destroyed my life."
Cancelmi also noted that Jeffrey Martin reunited with his daughter several years ago and took her on shopping trips. At one point, Jennifer Martin confronted him about the molestation, and he denied it.
Jeffrey Martin also denied it in court Wednesday. He said that the 6-year-old told the court in 1990 that her mother came up with the molestation allegation to get back at him during their divorce.
Herbert Hays, an assessor for the sexual offenders assessment board, used the allegation, other offenses in Martin's criminal history and several mental health evaluations to recommend that he be considered a sexually violent predator.
He was accused of molesting two children in a gas station bathroom in 1975, when he was about 17. Martin also has been charged several times with harassment by communication for making obscene phone calls to women.
The sexually violent predator designation requires Martin to register his whereabouts with authorities for the rest of his life. However, Martin probably never will be a free man again, so he most likely will never have to comply with that requirement.
Both Cancelmi and Grimes noted the irony of having the Megan's Law hearing, given the penalties that will be imposed for murder and other offenses, but it is required under the law.