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Journalism Contest Winner

Martin found not guilty for murder
By Joe Henika
California High School Court Room Journalist
Coach: Ms. Metcalf

Former Driftwood City High School student Beck Martin was found not guilty yesterday for allegedly murdering 17-year-old classmate Ann Marcus.

Judge David Mills found evidence in the case against Martin, 18, to be inconclusive, stating there are too many variables existing in the prosecution’s argument to suggest beyond reasonable doubt that Ms. Martin committed this crime.

“There is a point when all cards the prosecution have been playing against Ms. Martin need to fall,” he said.

Martin was arrested in June 9, 2002 after becoming the primary suspect in the bizarre drowning of Ann, whose body was found washed up on the shore of Ballena Beach near Driftwood City. Ann possessed marks on her wrists to suggest she had been bound together. She also had a head wound that suggested she had been knocked unconscious, according to police officer Loren Kripke.

Defense attorney Mariya Deryusina stated in her closing statement that the Prosecution had been trying the case on inconsistent evidence.

“What happened to Ann could have been an accident or it could very well have been murder,” Deryusina said. “Regardless, the prosecution have failed to prove that Beck Martin was the one who murdered her.”

The prosecution argued that Martin had sufficient motive to murder Ann due to a recent cheating incident at the high school. Ann observed Martin and fellow student Cody Ward, then seniors, cheating on an English exam. Ann proceeded to turn them into the administration and they both faced procedural consequences.

The prosecution argued that Beck Martin smashed Ann’s head with a rock, bounded her wrists together, after which she proceeded to push her over a cliff at Ballena Beach to drown.

“Beck Martin callously, viscously, and maliciously committed murder against Ann Marcus,” prosecution attorney Chi Nyugen stated in her closing statement.

Martin was supposedly placed at the scene during the time of Ann’s death as result of an examination of the body through methods of rigor mortis conducted by assistant chief coroner for Ocean County Dr. Aldan Hobbes.

But this claim was later refuted after Dr. Sage Gracian, a retired assistant coroner for Ocean County, testified that methods of rigor mortis are unreliable in this case because the severity of ocean temperature could interfere with the process of rigor.

The judge found this imperative.

“I would agree that the forensic evidence presented in this case is shaky,” Judge Mills said before ruling.

The defense also argued that because Ann Marcus was an avid rock climber, her drowning could have merely been an accident.

“What happened to Ann was tragic,” Beck Martin said earlier in the trial. “But I never killed her.”

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