Former player convicted of killing his father and 2 other men in the United States

Five years ago, Brandon Martin used his baseball bat to attack the three victims at their home in California. He has the right to the death penalty.

A former minor league baseball player selected in the Tampa Bay Rays college sweepstakes will go to jail after a California jury convicted him of the murder of his father and two other men, who were brutally beaten with a baseball bat. wood five years ago.

Brandon Martin, 27, used a black baseball bat engraved with his name to attack the three victims at his family’s home in the city of Corona, California on September 17, 2015, according to prosecutors.

His father, who has been declared disabled, Michael Martin, 64, and that man’s brother-in-law, Ricky Andersen, 51, died at the scene.

The third victim, Barry Swanson, 62, who was in a coma for two days before dying in the hospital, worked as an alarm technician and was on the property installing a security system “because the family was afraid of Brandon Martin.” he said. the local district attorney’s office in a press release.

The former player, now convicted, was the 38th player chosen in the Major League Baseball draft in 2011 when he was chosen by the Rays.

Martin played three seasons for his minor league team before being fired in 2015, according to NBC television in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said Martin had psychiatric problems and was admitted to an emergency treatment center two days before the attack, according to the TV station.

After being discharged, he went straight to his father’s home and committed the murders, authorities said.

He later stole Swanson’s truck and escaped the crime scene. He abandoned the vehicle, broke into a house and jumped out of a second floor window before police finally arrested him, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The jury convicted him of first degree murder, theft of cars, evading arrest, obstructing an officer and injuring a police dog.

The murder charge comes with a special circumstance of multiple homicides, which makes her eligible for the death penalty.

The rigorous phase of the trial will begin next Monday. Jurors will decide whether Brandon Martin will receive the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.