April 10, 2015 at 4:34 p.m.
Martinson waives extradition in double homicide case
Police tracked cellphone during manhunt
Martinson waives extradition in double homicide case
Martinson, 17, is accused of killing Thomas and Jennifer Ayers at their rural home in the eastern Oneida County town of Piehl. She was arrested March 8 in Boone County, Indiana traveling south on an interstate near Indianapolis with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Ryan Sisco, who is not a suspect.
The Rhinelander High School junior had initially declined to waive extradition, triggering a formal legal process in which Gov. Scott Walker had to request Martinson's return from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. A court hearing had been scheduled for next week in those proceedings.
But on Thursday, at a hearing lasting approximately 15 minutes, Martinson chose to voluntarily return to Wisconsin. Why or how that decision was made has not been made public.
Kent Eastwood, Boone County's chief deputy prosecuting attorney, told The Lakeland Times he received an email Thursday from an attorney representing Martinson stating she wanted to waive extradition.
According to an order of extradition filed Thursday, Martinson was told in court that she had a right to challenge the legality of the extradition proceedings. She was then placed under oath, indicated a desire to waive extradition and also signed a written waiver.
Boone County Circuit Judge J. Jeffrey Edens ordered the Boone County sheriff's office to hold Martinson without bail for up to 30 days so Wisconsin authorities can pick her up.
Oneida County Sheriff's Captain Terri Hook said details about Martinson's return to Wisconsin would not be made public for safety reasons.
"They'll send us a teletype probably saying she's ready, so that's when we'll act," Hook said.
According to court records, Martinson was scheduled to undergo a professional evaluation on Tuesday and Wednesday by someone who traveled from Milwaukee. Martinson's lawyer in Indiana wrote that the evaluation needed "to be done quickly."
A separate defense lawyer for Martinson, based in Wisconsin, had scheduled the professional evaluation.
Investigators believe Martinson shot Thomas Ayers and stabbed Jennifer Ayers on Saturday, March 7, and then locked her three young sisters in a room with food, which is the basis for the false imprisonment charges.
Authorities did not become aware of the incident until the morning of Sunday, March 8, when one of the sisters was able to locate a phone and call 9-1-1, according to court documents.
Cellphone tracked
Soon after discovering the scene in Piehl, the Oneida County sheriff's office issued an alert to law enforcement agencies nationwide notifying them to be on the lookout for Martinson and her boyfriend, who were believed to be traveling in a brown Chevrolet Silverado.
That evening, the two were apprehended after police spotted their truck on an interstate outside of Lebanon, Indiana.
The traffic stop didn't happen just by luck.
Records show police obtained information about the location of Martinson and Sisco from a cell phone in their possession.
According to reports released to The Lakeland Times, police were able to obtain information about cellphone pings - instances when cellphones communicate with towers.
While such tracking is not error-proof, the records show pings connected to one of their phones along Interstate 94 in Wisconsin and Illinois and on Interstate 65 in Indiana.
Documents show pings registered in Pewaukee and Deerfield, Illinois. Pings also hit towers near the Indiana cities of Hammond, Lafayette and Frankfort.
Information about the pings was relayed to law enforcement in Indiana, where police eventually spotted the Silverado in Boone County. Martinson and Sisco were stopped and arrested without incident.
Hook said the sheriff's office initially did not obtain a warrant for the location information, and at the time, they did not need one.
A recently enacted state law generally requires law enforcement agencies to secure a warrant before seeking cellphone location information. That law, however, has certain exceptions, including situations when there is an emergency "involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person" and when obtaining the location information "is relevant to preventing the death or injury or to mitigating the injury."
The sheriff's office later obtained a warrant for the location information as a precautionary measure, according to Hook.
"Though we did not have to, we went through the process of getting the warrant to validate with the cellular phone company that we had a valid emergency," Hook said.
Documentation about that warrant has been filed in court but is sealed.
Jonathan Anderson may be reached at [email protected].
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