In a 45-minute speech that showed a flair for oration, a former Baltimore County community association president explained to a judge why he solicited the murder of a local developer.
“I am a victim,” Michael Martin, 46, of Lutherville, dramatically declared Monday before Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana Levitz sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
Convicted of soliciting the murder of developer Michael Sabracos, who wanted to build a child care center in Timonium, Martin told Levitz another “psychopathic” inmate manipulated him into the scheme. He also compared himself to Kirk Bloodsworth, a Maryland death row inmate proved innocent by DNA evidence.
“I had no plot ofrevenge,” Martin said. “My only goal was to stop the business development.”
Judge Levitz, who loudly told Martin to keep his “mouth shut” after being interrupted, said the former community activist?s speech was concerning.
“You would appear to anyone to be delusional,” the judge said.
Too shaken to speak himself, Sabracos allowed prosecutor Allan Webster to read his statement to the judge.
“I only met him a few times at public meetings,” the incredulous developer wrote of his interactions with Martin. “To this day he has not shown any remorse for his actions.”
Once a respected member of his community, Martin?s life began to unravel when he was convicted of a fourth-degree sex offense involving a 9-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2006.
Then, prosecutors say, the plots began.
Police accused him of asking another inmate at the Baltimore County Detention Center to kill Assistant State?s Attorney Jason League and castrate prosecutor John Cox, both of whom handled his sex offense case.
In November a jury did not convict Martin of any plots against the prosecutors but found him guilty of soliciting Sabracos? murder and arson aimed at an elderly woman who told people at Martin?s church about his sex offense conviction.
Martin?s mother, Lillian, begged Levitz for leniency.
“He was very active in zoning of Baltimore County,” she said. “Some of that turned out to be a problem.”
The prosecutor, Webster, called the case “chilling on a lot of levels.”
“It truly makes your blood run cold,” he said.
Martin?s 40-year sentence will begin after he serves his time for the sex offense conviction.
