RIDGWAY — Days after being sentenced to life in prison without parole for the slaying of his on-again, off-again teenage girlfriend, Nicholas Martin now says he was unfairly convicted of the crime during his March murder trial in Elk County Court.
In a post sentence motion filed on Monday by his lawyer, George N. Daghir of St. Marys, Martin said testimony heard at his trial for the 2013 death of 18-year-old Alyssa Forsyth unfairly included mention of an unwanted “homosexual encounter” between him and a star witness in which Martin was portrayed as the aggressor. Martin said he wasn’t notified of the evidence in advance and believes it may have prejudiced jurors against him.
“The (witness) testified that Martin engaged him in a homosexual encounter by engaging in improper contact such a licking/kissing the witness’ face while on the floor on Martin’s apartment,” the motion reads.
It goes on to state, “The defendant had no pretrial notice from the Commonwealth that the Commonwealth intended to introduce such evidence at trial. The prejudicial nature of such testimony and the lack of any probative value for its introduction so biased the jury and stripped him of the presumption of innocence in this case by showing the defendant had a criminal propensity.”
As a result, Martin said he was denied a fair trial.
Through his motion, he asks the court to toss his conviction and possibly grant a new trial altogether.
Daghir did not return a call for comment on Tuesday, while prosecuting attorney Laura Ditka with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General said she has yet to familiarize herself with the motion and is reserving comment until then.
The testimony in question was delivered by Martin’s drinking buddy-turned-police informant, Jessie Pino, during day one of the trial.
In it, Pino said he and Martin spent the hours leading up to Forsyth’s death on March 23, 2013 playing beer pong in Martin’s 416 First Ave. apartment, drinking heavily and horsing around.
At one point, Pino said the two of them began to wrestle. He claimed Martin pinned him to the floor, went in for a kiss and instead wound up licking the side of his face.
Martin reportedly laughed-off the encounter, later dropping Pino off at home, picking Forsyth up from a St. Marys party and returning with her to his place. Within hours she would be dead, stabbed more than 100 times on the floor of Martin’s apartment, her body then dumped in a wooded area park.
Pino testified that Martin confessed to the killing in speaking with him the following day.
The information would jump start the investigation and help lead to Martin’s March 26, 2013 arrest on charges of murder and abuse of a corpse.
His trial, which commenced almost exactly two years later, came down to whether Martin planned to kill Forsyth or acted out in a moment of rage brought on by substance abuse, hurt feelings and a prone psychological state.
In the end, jurors sided with the prosecution which cast Martin as a cold and calculating killer, one with a history of violence and apparent lack of remorse.
In doing so, the panel, comprised of six men and six women, elected the toughest conviction at their disposal, that of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life behind bars for the 24-year-old.
The sentence was handed down in a hearing last week.
But now, with his post sentence motion filed, officials will have to decide whether the jury was given an unfair impression of Martin during the trial, one which might have wrongly colored their perceptions of him as well as their verdict.
No further proceedings are currently scheduled in the case.
