June 14, 2016 at 8:40 a.m.
Day of reckoning comes for Martinson
Abuse acknowledged, but judge insists teen did not have to resort to murder
Day of reckoning comes for Martinson
The first truth was that sometime during the afternoon of March 7, 2015, Martinson's mother Jennifer Ayers and her stepfather Thomas Ayers died at her hands in their town of Piehl home just one day after she turned 17.
According to the criminal complaint and testimony at previous hearings, Martinson shot her stepfather twice in the head with a shotgun and stabbed her mother to death following a confrontation in her bedroom.
The second truth was that despite the horrendous abuse she suffered in her young life, a cycle of sexual, physical, emotional and mental abuse, Martinson had other choices that didn't involve killing her parents.
After nearly 10 hours of testimony and argument, Bloom determined Martinson should serve 23 years in prison, to be followed by 17 years extended supervision, for choosing murder over her other options.
He granted her 460 days credit for time served since she was arrested on an interstate highway in Boone County, Indiana, north of Indianapolis, the day after the murders, with her then 22-year-old boyfriend Ryan Sisco. They were reportedly heading for Tennessee where Sisco had family.
Martinson pled guilty to the two reduced charges March 11. In exchange for her pleas, three counts of false imprisonment, for locking her three young siblings in a bedroom the day of the killings, were dismissed. Prior to accepting the plea agreement, Martinson had been pursuing a not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect (NGI) defense.
As part of the plea agreement, Oneida County district attorney Michael Schiek agreed to argue for no more than two 20-year prison sentences, to be served consecutively, followed by 20 years of extended supervision, for a maximum of 40 years behind bars. Martinson's attorneys, Thomas Wilmouth and Amy Lynn Ferguson, argued that she should serve only 8 years in prison, with a significant period of extended supervision upon her release.
Attached to the signed plea agreement, Martinson's attorneys attached a 26-page "Appendix A" that outlined the life of abuse Jennifer Ayers had endured, starting with being repeatedly raped by her own father and eventually pulling her own daughter Ashlee into the maelstrom when she was raped by one of Jennifer's boyfriends at age 9.
In allowing the appendix to be filed, Schiek agreed everything in the report was true. It proved Martinson had provocation, which was what allowed the charges to be reduced. In so doing, a possible life sentence in prison without release was taken off the table.
Among the witnesses Bloom heard from before pronouncing sentence were Martinson's young stepsisters, a member of Thomas Ayers' family and a person who was once close to Jennifer Ayers.
Thomas' sister speaks
After establishing the plan for the hearing, the parties went into Bloom's chambers where victim impact statements from Martinson's 10 and 9-year-old stepsisters were read into the record by the judge.
When the parties returned to open court, Schiek entered the two statements, along with two others from Thomas Ayers' sisters, into the record.
Sandy Rumore, another of Thomas Ayers' sisters, read her own statement. She said her family believes Martinson has not accepted full responsibility for the murders.
Rumore works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a crime victim advocate, primarily with abuse victims. She also has custody of her brother's three daughters, despite having not seen him for 15 years.
She objected to the way her brother has been portrayed in the media.
"Thomas was someone's child, he was our brother" and his daughters miss him every day, she said, noting that he won't see his children graduate from high school, walk them down the aisle to be married, or witness other milestones in their lives.
When she took her parents' lives on March 7, 2015, Martinson chose to be a part of the cycle of violence her mother brought her up in, Rumore said, adding that Martinson should have sought help locally for the abusive environment in the Ayers home. She asked for the maximum prison sentence for Martinson with a stipulation that she may not profit from what happened.
Wilmouth asked Rumore if, in her professional capacity, she had ever seen victims of domestic abuse resort to violence.
"It does occur, but in my experience, not very often," she said. She added later "every victim is different, you can't generalize."
She also admitted she has had little experience with cases involving juveniles as the majority of the victims of abuse she encounters on the job are adults.
When asked by Wilmouth why she didn't have contact with her brother, she replied they had "lived different lives," and she has little contact with any of her family. She did admit later that she chose not to have contact with her brother because of his violent domestic abuse convictions. Despite his criminal history, she stressed he was still her brother. She also admitted she knew there were media accounts of Thomas Ayers' criminal history but chose not to read them.
Under questioning from Wilmouth, Rumore admitted her brother "wanted to control people."
She said she had been given a chance to read the two pyschological evaluations of Martinson but declined to do so. She said she was given a chance to watch the video the defense would later show, but declined that offer, too. She said she wanted to hold onto the memories of her brother as they are.
"Each of us has their own impression of what is true," she said.
Rumore was also asked if she had watched the forensic interview that sheriff's captain Terri Hook conducted with the two older Ayers girls in July 2015 in which they described the abuse they had endured at the hands of her brother.
She said she did not watch the interview but has heard her nieces talk about their father many times.
"I will listen to them for the rest of my life talking about how they miss their father," she said. "There have been numerous conversations, and not all of them were pleasant. Some were bad memories."
She later admitted there were times Thomas Ayers "was not the stereotypical father."
She also said that teenage victims of abuse such as Martinson have more opportunities to seek help for their situation through school. She also said she did not think it was wrong for victims to fight back if they have to but felt Martinson could have found another way that day.
The DA's argument
In starting his sentencing argument, Schiek said a lot has been learned in the little over a year since the murders occurred. Because of the environment of abuse in the home, Schiek said the second-degree intentional homicide charges were appropriate but strongly disagreed with the defense argument that justice would be best served by a prison sentence of under 10 years. He also said he disagreed with how the defense was trying to paint Martinson as the victim. Schiek said he had viewed the defense video and felt at times both the video and the defense's presentation against Ayers attached to the plea agreement tried to place the blame on Ayers instead of Martinson.
"What I came away with after watching the video is that I feel like I have to defend the victims,""Schiek told Bloom, adding that he had "no doubt Miss Martinson has had a rough life."
Schiek said he had long considered what to say and do at this point in the case. Some of the hardest decisions involved the crime scene and autopsy photographs and if he would enter them into evidence. In the end, he opted not to.
He did, however, verbally recount the events of the afternoon of March 7, 2015 from the time when investigators arrived on scene after Martinson's sisters called for help. He said Martinson told investigators three different version of what happened, and had also lied to Sisco to get him to help her flee to Tennessee.
He then said something he would repeat the rest of the day.
"The only ones that know what really happened are Miss Martinson and Thomas and Jennifer, who are both dead," Schiek said.
While Martinson's actions were not premeditated, her actions after the murders aggravated the situation, he noted. Leaving her three stepsisters tied in a bedroom with just juice and snacks just feet from the bodies of their parents was aggravating, as were her three versions of the shooting, the first being Jennifer had shot Thomas and Martinson fought her for the knife after the shotgun had jammed.
Schiek said the forensics and autopsy report show that Thomas Ayers was shot in the throat by a 12-gauge shotgun. Jennifer Ayers was then stabbed 35 times, before Martinson placed the barrel of the shotgun against Thomas' temple and fired again.
"It was very violent and graphic," Schiek said of the crime scene.
He said the only reason Martinson didn't shoot Jennifer is because the shotgun jammed. She had to clear that jam to give Thomas the second shot.
Schiek then outlined what detectives had learned about Martinson and Sisco's romantic relationship, one her parents discovered when they read the 1,154 Facebook messages the two had sent each other over a period of less than 10 days. The messages included acknowledgement that the two had been having sex and that Sisco had sought nude photos of the underage girl.
A Facebook conversation on Martinson's Facebook account occurred at 4:04 p.m. on March 7 between either Thomas or Jennifer telling Sisco to stay away from the girl and stop contacting her or they would go to the police.
The next messages on the account were sent starting at 5:07 p.m. Schiek said the murders were committed in the interim. He said these messages, which did not mention the killings, showed her state of mind and was another aggravating factor against her.
He said the lesson people should take away from this case is that no matter what the abuse, violence is not a solution.
"There has to be punishments," Schiek said.
He then repeated his request for two 20-year prison sentences followed by 20 years of extended supervision.
The defense video
After a 20-minute break, Wilmouth and Ferguson began presenting their argument for leniency for their client.
During the video of interviews with people who knew either Ayers, Martinson or her mother the defense presented a stark picture of how Ayers tried to control people, sometimes with violence.
The people interviewed in the video knew either Jennifer or Thomas Ayers and included stepchildren, friends of Ayers' second wife and others who had firsthand experience with Ayers' actions.
Included in the video were portions of Hook's interview with two of Martinson's stepsisters where they detailed the "punishments" they endured at the hands of Thomas Ayers. The interviews painted a horrible portrait of Thomas Ayers and a horrific life for Jennifer Ayers. Those who knew Ashlee when she was younger expressed surprise at the turn her life had taken and said she doesn't deserve a sentence of over 10 years in prison.
The video also included portions Martinson's interrogation by detectives from the Oneida County sheriff's department while she was in custody in Indiana just after her arrest.
At one point, she was asked if she wanted to send any messages to her stepsisters.
"Tell them I love them and I'm sorry for everything," Martinson replied.
In several places in the video, friends would tell Martinson they loved her, and the teen, sitting between her attorneys, would tearfully reply.
Martinson managed to complete the graduation requirements from Rhinelander High School and was presented her diploma June 9 at the jail.
Another portion of the video showed Martinson going through her daily activities in her cell at the jail. She has been in solitary confinement since she was brought back from Indiana because, ironically, as a juvenile, she couldn't be placed in the general population.
"Yet if these events would have happened 40 hours earlier, I would have been filing motions to get the case transferred to juvenile court," Wilmouth would later point out.
Martinson's mental health
While she was pursuing her NGI defense, Martinson was evaluated by mental health experts Brad E.R. Smith and Sheryl Dolezal who both diagnosed her as suffering from major depressive disorder as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. They concluded she had likely been suffering some level of depression symptoms off and on since about age 8, which became noticeably more intense at around 15 when her mother moved in with Thomas Ayers.
Dolezal testified Friday that her report was conducted independently from Smith's, and involved two days of testing and talking with Martinson. She reiterated her diagnosis, one that Smith seconded after his own study. She said Martinson was definitely suffering from PTSD and the depressive disorder the day of the murders.
She said Martinson, like most victims trapped in an abusive situation, did not know she had options to get out. She said Martinson could very well have thought if she had gone for help, the other people in the house would suffer increased abuse.
"We are holding her to a standard that her mother was unable to live up to," Dolezal added.
Under questioning by Schiek, Dolezal said that Martinson will need a lot of treatment for her mental health problems, as well as helping her come to terms with what she did. That kind of treatment is usually not available in prison, so she would have to wait until she is released to begin.
"There is a lot of work that needs to be done and if she doesn't get the help, it increases the rate of recidivism," Dolezal testified.
Defense's final argument
Wilmouth argued 8 years would be a "reasonable and just sentence" because of Martinson's age. He said the courts are looking at taking most 17-year-olds out of adult court and trying their cases in juvenile court.
He said Martinson was "guilty of failing to escape an abusive environment" and noted both Smith and Dolezal agree that Martinson's mental health has improved since she has been in jail and out of the abusive environment.
"The key is, is she the evil person everyone thought she was on March 7, 2015?" he asked.
If what caused Martinson to kill isn't taken into account, "that just sends the message to the community that our criminal justice system is just a system" and a broken one at that, he argued.
He also urged Bloom to "plant a seed of kindness" that will give Martinson something to hope for while in prison.
When given the chance to speak on her own behalf, Martinson declined.
Bloom's final words
After a short recess, Bloom got the final word.
He started by saying he had reviewed all of the information that had been presented at earlier stages of the case. He then went through the sentencing considerations that must be taken into account in every case.
One of those considerations, the seriousness of the offense, was "of paramount concern" to him, he said.
He said there were "two diametrically opposed forces at play in this case, neither could be ignored." They are the crimes and their brutal nature and the ongoing abusive environment Martinson had lived in up until March 7, 2015.
He agreed with Wilmouth's and Dolezal's assertion that the murders were not planned, but the end result was the same.
"The public has a right to expect something from Mr. Schiek and the public has a right to expect something of me in pronouncing sentence," Bloom said.
He again repeated what he had said at Martinson's plea hearing that the information in "Appendix A" "would make any individual feel some sympathy for Ms. Martinson."
"But sympathy must give way to the truth. And in this case, the truth is that two people are dead," the judge said.
No matter what Thomas or Jennifer Ayers did, they did not deserve to die at Martinson's hands, he added.
"The most important factor to be taken from these proceedings is yes, the defendant had a choice," he finished.
Although Martinson's life was negatively impacted by Thomas Ayers actions, he did not physically or sexually abuse her and her life was never threatened, the judge noted.
In the end, it came down to one thing for Bloom.
"We have two people killed in the harshest way possible," he told Martinson before handing down his sentence. "And you did have a choice."
With the 460 days off her prison sentence for the time served, Martinson will be 40 years old when she is released from prison.
A hearing on restitution will be held at a later date.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at jtaylor @lakelandtimes.com.
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