Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess [Texas] Sandra Martin

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A Little Less Mess [Texas] Sandra Martin · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

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Hey, everyone, welcome to bless Us Mess of the True Rum Podcast.
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I'm Kara, Jess Kara. Welcome to a little Less Mess. This is
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our regular episodes without all of the banter and humor and everything in our opinions
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and all that good stuff. So if you want to hear our opinions on
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this or something with a little more humor or anything, then go check out
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our regular episodes in our feed. There are the numbered episodes that come out
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if you would like to help us out. We really really appreciate everyone who
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has joined our patreon so far. And with that, I guess we will
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get into our case out of Texas this week. Sandra Martin was born in
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nineteen fifty nine. She would go on to marry Charles David Martin and they
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would make their home in Fort Worth, Texas. After marrying, Charles and
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Sandra would have a son named CD, which I believe his name was Charles
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David and they called him CD around nineteen eighty one, followed by a daughter,
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Kristen, three years later. They lived a comfortable lifestyle. Charles was
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a car salesman and did well at his career. Sandra was a nurse,
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but quit her job to stay at home be a stay at home mom once
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they had the children. She wanted to spend as much time with her children
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as she possibly could. The couple was happy and lived a really good life.
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In September of nineteen eighty six, Sandra and Charles decided it was time
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to move to a larger home for their growing family. They placed a forsales
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sign in the front yard of their home on Amber Drive in Fort Worth.
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Sandra would show the home two interested buyers. As she was home with the
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children all day, they were not using an agent. It was a foresell
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by own room. On September twenty second, Charles called home to speak to
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his wife. His five year old son answered the phone and told his father
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that Sandra was in the other room and the door was locked. A few
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minutes later, Charles called home again. His son again answered the phone and
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stated that Sandra was in the other room and the door was locked, and
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when questioned by his father whether anyone had been to the house. He told
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his father that a man had stopped by to look at the house. Growing
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concerned, Charles left work and went home. Upon arriving at the home,
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he sees that the front door is open, and he knows something as wrong,
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as they never leave the door locked. Charles goes to the master bedroom
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and knocks, seeing if Sandra responds. When she doesn't come to the door
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and he hears nothing, he throws his shoulder into the door three times and
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breaks it open. Inside he found Sandra on the floor beside the bed with
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duct tape round her head. Her hands were bound together with duct tape.
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Her ankles were also bound with duct tape, but were not bound together.
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There was his blood all over the floor, in bed and coming from her
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nose. Her skirt was pulled up and her underwear was pulled down around her
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right ankle. Charles pulled some of the duct tape away from Sandra's nose and
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called the police. While he is on the phone with police, he realizes
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he has not seen or heard his children. He tells them he has to
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go. He needs to find his children. Terrified of what he may find,
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he starts looking through the house. He makes it to the back door
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and walks outside. There he sees both of his children unharmed. He's relieved
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for a second, but then flashes back to his lifeless wife in the master
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bedroom. The paramedics and police arrive. He begs them to save his wife,
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but they have to break the news to him that Sandra is dead.
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Upon examining the body, they see that Sandra actually died from a gunshot wound
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to the head. They could see where she had been shot through the bridge
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of the nose. They also found a pillow lion ext Sandra with a bullet
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hole through it. They believed that the killer used this as a silencer when
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they shot Sandra. An autopsy would later reveal that Sandra had died from acute
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cerebral laceration and intracranial hemorrhage caused by a gunshot wound to the head. Breezing
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on her thyroid and hemorrhaging within the strap muscles of her neck indicated that before
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being shot, Sandra had been strangled. When examining the crime scene, they
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found no items missing from the house and there was no signs of forced entry.
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They processed the home but could not find any fingerprints belonging to some one
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outside of the home. They knew the killer planned this as they had brought
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their own duct tape, razors, and other items to the home. With
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no signs of burglary, and the way that Sandra's body was found with half
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of her body exposed, they believed that the motive was rape and murder.
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Sandra appeared to have been duct taped to the bed at some point. She
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also had so much duct tape around her face it was almost like a mask.
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The killer had used the duct tape to frighten her while he was carrying
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out his attack. Police quickly pieced together that it was someone impersonating a home
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buyer that committed this crime. Charles was devastated from the death of his wife
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and finding her in that state. He was grieving but also caring for two
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small children. He explained to his children when they asked where their mother was
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that quote, mommy had died and he was going to find them a new
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mommy. While the children were dealing with losing their mother, police needed to
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interview the only witness to the crime, their five year old son. This
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was going to be a difficult task for investigators. They called in a specialist
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who knew how to interview children. They started by establishing whether CD understood what
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lying was in telling the truth was, but by asking him simple questions.
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After this, she began asking him about his day. He said a man
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came and looked at all the rooms and went into the bedrooms. He said
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he had a measuring tape and was measuring all the walls. They then went
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into the master bedroom and closed the door and locked it. That was the
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last time he saw his mother. He described the man as why short and
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had balding hair that was combed back. He also said that he had hair
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on his face and said it was a beard. The interviewer asked him to
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show where the beard was on the man's face using a doll, and he
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pointed to his lip. Ced had confused the words the man had a mustade
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mustache, not a beard. He described the man's clothing, saying he wore
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a white suit. He said he did not hear anything coming from the bedroom
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after they went in a little bit later, the man walked out and said
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to c D and Kristen, your mom's washing up. She will be out
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in a minute, and then left. Police felt this had to do with
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the cell of the homes. They start with the real estate community. They
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passed out flyers to local realtors, trying to see if they knew anyone matching
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that description. While awaiting leads from those flyers, they interviewed the neighbors.
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One said they noticed a car in the driveway that day. They did not
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know what type, but they said it was a luxury brand. Please turn
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back to Charles, as they know he was a luxury car salesman and he
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would have access to dozens of high end vehicles. R Charles in for an
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interview. They begin by asking Charles about the state of his marriage. He
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immediately admits to cheating on Sandra. He not only cheated, but if cheating
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was an Olympic sport, he would have won gold. In just the year
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leading up to Sandra's murder, he had had affairs with ten different women.
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Now, despite these affairs, he said he still loved Sandra very much.
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Well, this put him on the top of the suspects lists. First police
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they are beginning to think that Charles just wanted out of this marriage, but
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Charles's alibi checked out. He was at the dealership at the time of the
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murder. They also knew they had a description of the man from their son,
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and he did not describe his father. They're thinking he possibly hired someone
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to kill his wife. They continued to ask him questions and finally asked him
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to take a polygraph test, which he agrees to. One of the questions
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asked was did you help playing your wife's murder. The results for that particular
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question were inconclusive, however, he passed the other questions. In the end,
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the polygraph examiner determined he was telling the truth and was not involved with
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his wife's murder, but he thought he might have more knowledge on the situation.
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At a dead end with Charles, they go back to the evidence at
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the crime scene. One of the biggest piece of evidence that they were hoping
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to get some prints off of was that tape wrapped around Sandra's face. The
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tape was wrapped in three layers, one section around the eyes and one section
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over the mouth and nose, and there was about twenty feet of tape wrapped
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in total around her face. They sent the tape off to be tested,
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but no prints were recovered on the outer smooth portion of the tape. The
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crime lab was unable to pull the tape apart to check the sticky portions of
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the tape that were layered. The tape was sent back to fort Worth Police
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Department, determined to examine the sticky sections in between. One detective came up
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with a brilliant ideal to separate the tape without destroying evidence. They froze the
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tape strips. Once frozen, the tape was easily pulled apart. They sent
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the tape off again and were able to obtain six fingerprints on the tape.
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Whoever these fingerprints belonged to was the They first checked the Prince of Charles and
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it was not a match. They ran the Prince in the system for the
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fort Worth area and there was no match either. Police continued to look for
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the other leads through the real estate market, but they continued to come back
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to Charles. They believe he knows more than he is saying. After all,
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his and Sandra's marriage was terrible despite what he says. They know you're
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not cheating on your wife with ten different women in having a happy marriage.
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On top of the admitted affairs, they also had neighbors and friends coming forward
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saying that Sandra was a different person When she was around Charles, she was
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much more reserved and he seemed controlling of her. Charles was quickly losing friends
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as suspicions around him swirled. Despite all of this, no evidence led to
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Charles, and police eventually had to officially dismiss him as a suspect. Though
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Charles and his family were relieved, they still did not know who killed Sandra.
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Years passed by with no new information on Sandra's murder. Sandra's children were
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growing up, Charles remarried, and they moved on with their lives. The
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case officially went cold and was filed away in the cold case unit of the
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Fort Word Police Department. However, over the years, the fingerprints were a
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run in the Texas Department of Public Safety t DPS Automatic Fingerprint System APHIS six
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separate times and yielded no results. In two thousand and nine, twenty three
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years after the murder of Sandra, the case would be reopened by a cold
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case detective in Fort Worth. The case caught the eye of Detective Jose Hernandez,
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who saw the fingerprint evidence and felt that this was enough information to find
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the killer. Hernandez again submitted the fingerprints to APHIS, as well as to
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the FBI's fingerprint database. No matches were found. Hernandez then decided to physically
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take the prints to t tbsps's latent print section in Austin. About three weeks
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later, that lab gave him a name, Jay Thayer Williams, along with
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some other information. This prompted Hernandez to make contact with the Temple Police Department.
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Hernandez then traveled to Temple, where he met with that police department's records
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custodian Skip Carmouch. From Carmouch, Hernandez obtained a fingerprint card, obtaining William's
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finger prints collected in connection with his nineteen eighty three arrest in Temple for driving
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with the suspended license. Hernandez then drove back to Fort Worth and submitted the
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Temple fingerprint card to the Fortward p D Crime Lab's latent print examiner. While
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awaiting results from the Forward p D Crime Lab, they began to look into
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Williams and were surprised to find that he had only ever been arrested for that
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suspended license. They seemed odd to please that this he was not infer any
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violent crimes or something more serious. However, when they looked further into his
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past and career, it all started coming together. Williams had worked as a
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real estate agent for twenty years, and at the time of Sandra's murderer,
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he was working in the Fort Worth area. They received the lab results back
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on the finger prints and it was a definite match. They then call in
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the Martin family. They were in shocked to hear that they actually had a
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suspect. They'd given up hope. At this point, they bring in CD,
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Kristen and Charles and show them his picture. C D, who was
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the only eyewitness, saw his picture and immediately flashed back to that day.
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His original description of the murderer was spot on. In April of two thousand
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and nine, police arrived at William's home near the fifty seven hundred block of
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Brushy Creek Lane in North Dallas. Williams came to the door with no issue
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and did not seem surprised he was being arrested. The only thing he said
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was let me get my shoes. Williams was interviewed by police but was not
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admitting to anything without a confession. They began building a case against Williams.
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It would have to be built only on those fingerprints, as Williams had no
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criminal past and did not appear to have done this type of thing again.
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After Sandra Williams was held on five hundred thousand dollars bill, the case would
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go to trial in June of twenty eleven. If convicted, William's wood face
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in automatic life and prison sentence, as the state did not seek the death
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penalty. The prosecution focused on the fingerprint evidence and how there was no way
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they could be on the in between layers of the duct tape without him having
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committed the crime. In total, there were ten specific ridge marks that matched
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up with the Williams print. The prosecution believed that William's targeted Sandra, that
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he knew she was alone, and came back to attacker. The defense argued
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that the fingerprint evidence was not properly handled and therefore was no good They also
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argued that for it to be one hundred percent match, the whole fingerprint should
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match up, not just ten specific ridges. They argued that Charles Martin would
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be the only one who wanted Sandra dead and that he wanted out of his
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marriage. The trial lasted four weeks, and after just two hours of deliberation,
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they found Williams guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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He appealed his conviction but was denied. Police continued to look into Williams
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to see if he was connected to any other unsolved murders. Currently, they
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have found no other crimes he is responsible for, and that's our case out
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of Texas. I appreciate you listening and like say, if you want to
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hear my thoughts on the father telling the kids that he's gonna find him a
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new money, you should listen to our regular weekly episodes. They are the
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numbered ones. And yeah, like us on Instagram, Facebook, review us,
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check us out on Patreon, and I guess we will see you next
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time. By everyone, don't you know it's bye bye to be superstacious by
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rapping else is working