April 27, 2015 at 4:26 p.m.
New details emerge in homicide case
Amended criminal complaint: Argument over older boyfriend allegedly sparked killings
New details emerge in homicide case
Martinson, 17, is accused of killing her mother and stepfather, Jennifer and Thomas Ayers, March 7 and locking her three younger siblings in a bedroom with food. It is alleged that she then fled the house with her boyfriend, Ryan Sisco, 22, of Tomahawk. The pair were apprehended on an interstate highway in Boone County, Indiana the next day after a nationwide manhunt.
According to the amended complaint, a 911 call was received from the Ayers' residence at 10:40 a.m. March 8 reporting "an unknown problem." When officers arrived, they found the three younger children, ages 9, 8 and 2, and observed Jennifer Ayers' body. The Oneida County Special Response Team was dispatched and cleared the scene. It was during that process that the body of Thomas Ayers was located.
Detectives spoke with the nine-year-old at the scene. She said Martinson had killed the adults. According to the report, Martinson told the child that she and her sisters were going to play a game, placed them in a room and tied the door shut.
While detectives waited for teams from the state crime lab to process the crime scene, they tried to locate Martinson. Rather quickly they received information that she might be traveling with Sisco, so they issued an all-points bulletin for a pick-up registered in his name. At approximately 7:50 p.m., they received word that the two had been apprehended in Indiana.
On March 9, two members of the sheriff's office traveled to Boone County to interview Sisco. Sisco said he had been communicating with Martinson's parents on the social media website Facebook, and they told him to quit seeing the girl. According to the report, Sisco was able to show the officers the Facebook conversation on a computer. The report quoted one message as saying "as her parents we can press charges."
Sisco waived extradition and was returned to Lincoln County in March, where he was being held on a probation violation. He has since been transferred to the Oneida County Jail where he remains. He has not been charged in connection with homicide case.
The complaint lists the cause of death for the two victims as multiple stab wounds for Jennifer and two gunshot wounds for Thomas, one to the head and the other to the neck.
According to the report, a detective interviewed the two older children on March 10 and the oldest child said there was an argument between Martinson and her parents about her seeing Sisco. The girl said Martinson had been upstairs in her bedroom when Thomas Ayers came into the house from outside. When he was told that Martinson was upstairs, he allegedly went upstairs and began to pound on a door.
The girl told detectives that she heard two gunshots and her mother went upstairs. She said Jennifer Ayers then called for her by name and when she got to the stairs she saw Martinson fighting with her mother. She said Martinson told her to go back downstairs and she did. She said eventually, her mother stopped screaming "and that was when Jennifer was dead," the report said.
She told the detective that when Martinson came downstairs, allegedly holding Thomas Ayers' knife and gun, she was "bloody and bleeding" from a stab wound to her leg and cuts on her fingers. She put cartoons on for the three younger children while she took two showers, the complaint states. When she was done with the second shower, the child said that Martinson allegedly told the three to go in the younger girls' bedroom with food, and then tied the door shut so they could not get out.
According to the report, the eight-year-old gave the detective essentially the same information in a separate interview.
The older girl told the detective that while they were able to get out of the bedroom rather quickly after the door was tied, they stayed there because they did not know whether Martinson had left the house.
Martinson had initially declined to waive extradition, triggering a formal legal process in which Gov. Scott Walker had to request her return from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. But April 9, at a hearing lasting approximately 15 minutes, she chose to voluntarily return to Wisconsin. Oneida County then had 30 days to have her transferred back to Wisconsin. She was brought back the evening of April 23, according to Terri Hook, sheriff's captain.
Martinson made her initial appearance Friday before Branch II Judge Michael Bloom. She was represented by Thomas Wilmouth and Amy Lynn Ferguson, both of whom were appointed by the state public defender's office. Wilmouth appeared from the jail with Martinson. Ferguson was in the courtroom.
Due to the seriousness of the charges and the violent nature of the offenses, Bloom agreed with Oneida County District Attorney Michael Schiek's recommendation and set a $750,000 cash bond for Martinson. If she is able to post the bond, she is not to leave Oneida County and may not contact her sisters or Sisco.
If convicted of the two first-degree homicide counts, Martinson faces life in prison. The three false imprisonment charges carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison on each count.
A preliminary examination to establish if probable cause exists for Martinson to stand trial on the charges has been scheduled for June 5.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.